Between 23 and 25 April 2026, the Inotek Centre in Cahul hosted the hackathon “Solutions for Countering Online Disinformation”, an event dedicated to developing digital tools that can support the identification and verification of information online. Over three days, pupils, university students and young professionals from IT, media and social sciences worked in teams to turn their ideas into practical digital prototypes.

The hackathon brought together 56 young people, organised into 15 teams. Participants developed digital solutions that can help users more easily identify false or misleading information and check sources before sharing content online.

The projects were evaluated by a jury based on criteria such as usefulness, feasibility and social impact. The winning teams were:

● 1st place: Team Ava — 14,000 lei
● 2nd place: Team TruthShield — 10,000 lei
● 3rd place: Team DeepGuard — 6,000 lei

Gabriela, a member of the award-winning TruthShield team, emphasised that innovation is not reserved exclusively for IT specialists:

“None of us are IT specialists, and the three of us only met here on the first day of the hackathon. We were surprised to see that we could create an extension that may serve as a practical tool in countering disinformation. We are proud that our solution was recognised by the jury.”

Beyond the prizes, the value of the event lay in the practical experience gained by the participants. Each team left with an MVP — Minimum Viable Product — a functional prototype that can be further developed into a start-up or a public-interest application.

Throughout the hackathon, participants benefited from the support of mentors from the technology and journalism fields, who helped them refine their ideas and develop practical solutions.

Watch the video report from the event here: