"<< Background >>A large number of articles report on underrepresented and marginalized groups as a cultural and economic threat to Europe. Additionally, online and offline articles about denying climate change have been described as the Ultimate conspiracy theory (Lopez and Share, 2020). However, the rise of fake news has not stopped yet. It even gets worse. The Anti-Rumour project ignores the debates over the false dichotomy between “fake” and “real” or “true” and “false”. It brings something new to the horizon in order to help youth identify conspiracy theories and fake news. The Anti-Rumour project aims to show some basic characteristics of such phenomena and how all conspiracy theories and fake news can be diagnosed academically in three simple steps following scholar’s Cas Mudde theories. According to the Dutch political scientist’s theories, fake news can be in the family of a broader phenomena that are characterized as ""a thin-centred ideology that considers society to be separated into two homogenous and antagonistic camps, 'the pure people' versus 'the corrupt elite’"".Democracies are fragile and vulnerable when their citizens are not aware and well-informed, as well as when their citizens insist on not engaging in democratic processes, with turnout numbers increasing. At the same time, various European surveys show declining levels of trust in the political institutions of democracy. Research on the past and present challenges and tensions in democracy can help to understand better and strengthen democracy, its resilience and stability. It will foster democracy’s further development to enhance representation, participation, openness, pluralism, tolerance, the effectiveness of public policy, non-discrimination, civic engagement, the protection of fundamental rights (environmental rights are an extension of the basic human rights) and the rule of law. The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.The consortium believes that democratic governance is restored and strengthened by improving the accountability, transparency, effectiveness and trustworthiness of rule-of-law based institutions and policies and by expanding active and inclusive citizenship empowered by the safeguarding of fundamental rights.The project is strictly connected to EU’s priorities in regards to the Erasmus+ programme guide of 2021-2027, social inclusion and environmental awareness; as well as to some of the Sustainable Development Goals by the UN and is intended to be achieved by 2030. These SDGs are Goals 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 16.<< Objectives >>The Anti-Rumour project aims to raise awareness regarding fake news's features and hidden discourses and understand the benefits of integrating young people into political discourses by engaging more youth organisations in the battle against fake news and conspiracy theories.The partner organisations noticed a need to have a common reference framework in youth work to be digitally savvy in an increasingly digitised world. Thus, this project will discover how to identify and overcome disinformation and tackle fake news, especially among young people who are more familiar with social media and can quickly transform into active media producers than passive media consumers. Social Inclusion and Environmental Awareness will be the two pillars addressed during the project's entire timeline. The project aims to enhance the participation of young people in democratic and civic life in the partner countries and Europe and grow scientific trust; it will support the fight against climate change - through environmental crisis awareness. Active citizenship will be strengthened. Anti-Rumour will enable young people to connect with civil society organisations and NGOs working on media literacy through the expected results and outcome of the project. It will increase social inclusion built on European values. Conspiracy theories will be approached through the lens of ""a thin-centred ideology that considers society to be separated into two homogenous and antagonistic camps, 'the pure people' versus 'the corrupt elite"" (Cas Mudde, 2017). Lastly, the project aims to be the very first to approach Media Literacy in a gamified environment. Thus the project will help improve trust in democratic institutions, safeguard liberties and the rule of law and protect democracy from multidimensional threats.The project aims at increasing awareness on the importance of active citizenship among young people, as well as to make sure that young people trust public administrations and they acknowledge the importance of the common European values, which are inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination. The Anti-Rumour objectives will be delivered by creating a Guidebook that will help youth to diagnose conspiracy theories and deal with fake news, making sure that it addresses phenomena related to climate change & environmental issues and marginalised groups & minorities. Secondly, the project will create a digital toolkit that includes online and free tools for tracking down disinformation. The toolkit will be accompanied by tutorial videos on how to use those tools. The third result will be an innovative serious game on Media Literacy against Conspiracy Theories. This result aims to incorporate a fun and entertaining aspect in the project, yet educational and informative. Lastly, the project will introduce a learning module composed of four Lessons along with their lesson plans in four different thematics:1. Marginalized/underrepresented Groups & Social Inclusion;2. Environmental awareness & Global Warming;3. Conspiracy theories and their key features; and4. Media Literacy - Protection & Empowerment.<< Implementation >>The Anti-Rumour project plans to have in total 4 Multiplier Events (3 Local and 1 International Final Conference).During those events, we expect at least 125 participants in total belonging to Anti-Rumour’s main and secondary target groups:a. Youth Organisations; b. Youth Workers/Educators/Trainers; c. Organizations Supporting Media Literacy Education; d. Organisations Supporting Information Literacy; e. Organisations focusing on environmental awareness; f. Organisations that work with minorities and socially excluded and underrepresented groups; such as LGBTQI+ people, migrants, refugees, poc, etc.These events will bring together:a) presentations of project results as well as presentations by the national project managers and researchers; andb) Lessons on Media Literacy focusing on environmental awareness and social inclusion.Project outcomes that will be promoted in particular will be the project key results, namely1. PR1.1 1 comprehensive list with a minimum of 15 resources on the existing situations in regards to fake news, rumours and conspiracy theories.2. Synthesis of Media Literacy and Academic Theories related to conspiracy theories performed by the youth trainers and educators3. PR1 publication: Anti-rumour Guidebook “How to diagnose conspiracy theories and how to deal with fake news”4. PR2 Toolkit for tracking down disinformation5. PR3 Serious Game & Game Instructions6. PR4 Publication of Learning Module and the Lesson Plans7. PR4.A6 Series of Lessons (Local Lessons Sessions)Additionally, Anti-Rumour will have 4 face-to-face TPMs, which will contribute to keeping the work plan flowing and facilitate the coordination of the project’s activities. SDC will be responsible for developing the agenda for each meeting, promoting the discussions and agreements among partners, and keeping minutes with the summarized action points that will serve as a monitoring tool in between meetings. For the purposes of our project’s management and coordination of the research activity, we have planned four official transnational meetings. For this case, each partner organization will select (amongst its employees) one researcher-coordinator.It is expected that 2 staff members will participate in the kick-off meeting and TPM4, while 1 member from each partner country will participate in TPM2 & TPM3. In case physical attendance is not possible, online participation is encouraged. In between meetings, quarterly online meetings will be promoted via ZOOM in order to keep track of the work in progress and implement corrective measures if necessary to enable a good work strategy.During these TPMs, the consortium will discuss the progress of PR1-4, as well as the actions taken in order to promote the project's sustainability, dissemination strategy, quality assurance and project management. Finally, the project's website and social media will sustain and promote the majority of the project's results and outcomes. Such outcomes can be either the finalised results that the consortium will produce or the material that the partners will use in order to achieve their desired outcomes; such as surveys, questionnaires, interviews, videos, etc.<< Results >>Through the implementation of this project and its project results, the main expected outcomes are:- The transformation of the teaching/training material that Youth Organisations and the rest of the target groups use;- The protection and empowerment of young people in social media, and the development of skills through media and information literacy. Additionally, young people will learn about contemporary, online, free tools- Anti-Rumour will combat disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories. More specifically, it will re-introduce youth to topics related to environmental awareness and social inclusion of marginalised groups.In addition to these three main outcomes, Anti-Rumour will also teach new skills and methods through a series of OERs. This will be done through the full exploitation of all the possibilities provided by Media Literacy, with the aim to transform young people from passive media consumers to active media producers.These OERs include:PR1: Anti-rumour Guidebook “How to diagnose conspiracy theories and how to deal with fake news”- 1 guide published in four languages (in digital format- epub) aiming to raise awareness regarding the threats that conspiracizing holds, especially against young people and to address problems that young people face in regards to misinformation related to environmental awareness and social inclusion.PR2: Toolkit for tracking down disinformation- The toolkit will include a collection of 15 online tools that can help online users to identify conspiracy theories, to find out when they began, to learn who is leading the conspiracy, and to discover which news stories, blog posts, and other links are appearing most frequently in online conversations. Each of the 15 tools will be accompanied by a tutorial video on how to use the tool.PR3: Serious Game on Media literacy and against conspiracy theories- The game focuses on assessing people's skills and personality characteristics who can identify different types of media and the messages they are sending.PR4: Anti-rumour Learning Module (including 4 lessons & lesson plans)- This result is basically the production of four distinct Lessons along with their Lesson Plans. The module will teach youth organisations and youth workers how to use that material. It will showcase how the material from PR1, PR2 and PR3 can be proven helpful for marginalized groups and environmental issues. The module will be divided into 4 lessons.In addition, the following organisational results are expected before the project’s completion:- Development of project website & integration of the website in partner organisation websites, which will not only report about the project and the activities but also will store most ofthe created materials after the end of the project as a part of project sustainability;-4 Local Lessons Sessions in the partners’ countries on 4 distinct Lessons and the accompanying material, gathering 100 people in total;-4 transnational partner meetings;-4 multiplier events in every participating country (1 international and 3 national events)."