Women victims of violence: A renewed commitment
FBK has joined "Insieme contro la violenza sulle donne" (Together Against Violence Against Women), a network of organizations and institutions dedicated to promoting initiatives that support women experiencing violence in the province of Trento. The Foundation is also advancing numerous research projects aimed at countering violence and hate— including linguistic forms of abuse.
The Autonomous Province of Trento has formally certified the inclusion of Fondazione Bruno Kessler among the organizations involved in initiatives to prevent and combat gender-based violence, particularly violence against women. This recognition follows the memorandum of understanding that FBK signed in the spring of last year, developed in collaboration with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento , law enforcement agencies, the Trento province Healthcare System, the University of Trento, and the Federation of Cooperation.
By joining Together Against Violence Against Women, FBK strengthens its commitment to safety and prevention, becoming an active member of the board established to coordinate initiatives against gender-based violence. The Foundation contributes its expertise in research and technology innovation, helping to develop tools that can meaningfully support women victims of violence and raise public awareness of the issue.
In this perspective, FBK is already working on multiple fronts, using research as a lever to prevent, monitor, and intervene in risk situations and discrimination.
Among the many projects FBK is pursuing, one in particular focuses on preventing this ongoing emergency. In Italy, more than 6.5 million women are estimated to have suffered physical or sexual violence— a number that climbs even higher when considering psychological, economic, online violence and stalking. With support from the Autonomous Province of Trento and other local organizations, Fondazione Bruno Kessler’s Center for Digital Health and Wellbeing is developing a digital platform—scheduled for official release in 2026—to prevent and combat male violence against women, an issue that remains largely hidden. The project adopts an “ecological” approach, engaging the entire community to promote a social and cultural environment that encourages people to seek help and helps prevent new incidents. The platform will offer educational and informational content while supporting existing local services. The initiative includes an experimental phase and a research phase dedicated to developing and validating targeted motivational interventions. It is built through co-creation with stakeholders and a qualified team, and will feature pilot studies to ensure continuous improvement and tangible community impact.
FBK also promotes many different projects aimed at identifying and addressing stereotypes in language and the distortions that can occur when such language is used to train algorithms.
Web language and hate speech are the focus of the Hatedemics project, coordinated by the Language and Dialogue Technologies group led by Marco Guerini, a computational linguistics researcher with the Center for Augmented Intelligence, in collaboration with the Complex Human Behaviour Laboratory led by Riccardo Gallotti and the Digital Humanities Unit led by Sara Tonelli, both part of the Center for Digital Society.
The project’s goal is to create educational pathways that counter hate crimes fueled by misinformation and aimed at vulnerable groups, including women. These programs rely on an AI-based platform capable of detecting hateful content and misinformation on social media, as well as suggesting appropriate responses—called counter-narratives—to dismantle harmful arguments. Thanks to this FBK-developed platform, NGOs, journalists, fact-checkers, public authorities, and students can address online hate and misinformation quickly and effectively.
The Foundation continues its efforts with the launch of new initiatives: introduced last September, Eclipse aims to combat hate speech—of which women are often targets—and disinformation both online and offline throughout Europe. To accomplish this, advanced technologies are integrated with insights from the social, behavioral, criminological, and legal sciences. The goal is to develop effective tools and strategies that strengthen the resilience of professionals and citizens, helping them recognize and respond to these forms of abuse in digital spaces and in everyday life.
Fondazione Bruno Kessler contributes to the project through its Center for Digital Society and Center for Augmented Intelligence. One of the main outcomes will be the production of policy briefs, in several languages, with operational recommendations for policy makers at national and European level. The goal is to promote shared approaches to data collection and the implementation of countermeasures, while fully respecting fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and privacy.
One project that has already concluded—yet highlights the longstanding commitment of the two Foundation Centers to raising awareness of gender-based violence—is StandByMe – Fight Violence Against Women (VAWG). It aims to combat online violence against women and girls through educational programs for students supported by AI tools. The project carried out both online and in-person sessions using educational materials and real cases of online violence, along with the development of gamified applications designed to increase awareness and the ability to recognize misogynistic language.
