GCRD and Sensika Present Democracy Discourse Index at Sofia Information Integrity Forum

Sofia Information Integrity Forum

SOFIA, BULGARIA – November 6, 2025 – The Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy (GCRD) and Sensika Technologies presented the Democracy Discourse Index (DDI) at the Sofia Information Integrity Forum on November 6, 2025, unveiling the world's first real-time tool for measuring democratic health through public discourse quality.

Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, Founding Executive Director of GCRD, alongside partners Georgi Angelov and Liliya Grigorova from Sensika Technologies, delivered the presentation "From Theory to Algorithm: How We're Building the Democracy Discourse Index" on a panel entitled "Human Rights, Information Integrity, and Measuring Democratic Discourse."

The presentation outlined how the GCRD-Sensika partnership is translating decades of democratic theory into algorithmic systems capable of detecting erosion of civic agency and social cohesion as it happens.

"Democracy lives or dies in the quality of its discourse," Dr. Jacob explained to the international audience of researchers, policymakers, and technologists. "Traditional democracy indices measure institutions, elections, and constitutions—but they overlook how people actually converse, deliberate, and imagine a shared future. The DDI tells us what's happening, and what's coming."

The DDI measures democratic health across six core dimensions: the Empathy Index (tracking expressions of care versus hostility), Trust Language Index (capturing confidence in institutions and interpersonal trust), Information Integrity (evaluating accuracy versus distortion), Deliberative Depth (measuring reflective versus reactive discourse), Civility Index (assessing respectful dialogue versus toxicity), and Curiosity Index (evaluating openness to new perspectives versus ideological closure).

Built on Sensika's cutting-edge natural language processing technology and grounded in GCRD's research framework drawing from Critical Discourse Analysis and Deliberative Democracy scholarship, the DDI will analyse millions of digital interactions in real time across more than 20 languages. The system is implemented as part of the joint GCRD-Sensika Disinformation Observatory.

Dr. Jacob shared the panel with distinguished experts, including Mariana Katzarova, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Russian Federation, who detailed how Russia's information control apparatus enables systematic rights violations. Salome Kandelaki presented research on Georgia's information space under siege, while Rumena Filipova revealed China's subtle but pervasive influence operations in Bulgaria. The panel, moderated by Ruslan Trad of De Re Militari, demonstrated the critical intersection between information integrity and human rights.

A key innovation of the DDI is its human-centered research methodology. Rather than relying solely on automated systems, the project coordinates faculty-led student research teams across a consortium of universities in diverse democratic contexts. These teams analyze social media discourse using structured coding protocols, creating high-quality training data that enables the AI to detect nuanced patterns of democratic erosion.

"Measurement without moral clarity is just data," Dr. Jacob emphasized. "We're not just building algorithms—we're training a global network of researchers who understand that disinformation doesn't just deceive, it destroys the conditions for democratic life."

The DDI is currently in development, with a global launch planned for October 2026. Universities, policymakers, and civic technologists interested in joining the DDI Consortium can learn more at gcrd.org.uk/ddi.

The three-day Sofia Information Integrity Forum, organized by GATE Institute, Center for the Study of Democracy, HSS Foundation, Identrics, Sensika, and Graphwise, brought together over 300 researchers and practitioners working on information integrity, democratic resilience, and human rights across Central and Eastern Europe.

For more information about the Democracy Discourse Index or the GCRD-Sensika partnership, contact ddi@gcrd.global