IGF 2018 WS #406
Fake News against democracy

Subtheme
Issue(s)

Organizer 1: EDUARDO MAGRANI, ITS RIO

Speaker 1: EDUARDO MAGRANI, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Malavika Jayaram, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Ashar Amar, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

Eduardo Magrani

Online Moderator

Carlos Affonso

Rapporteur

Eduardo Magrani

Format

Round Table - 60 Min

Interventions

This session is hosted by the Institute for Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro (ITS RIO) and composed by members of civil society, academia, government and private companies. The speakers are Carlos Affonso (Director of ITS Rio - Brazil), Wolfgang Schulz (Director at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) - Germany), Eduardo Magrani (Coordinator of ITS Rio - Brazil), Amar Ashar (Senior Researcher at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, USA), Malavika Jayaram (Executive Director of the Digital Asia Hub, Hong Kong), Juliana Nolasco (Public Policy Manager at Google Brazil), Luis Fernando García (Executive Director of R3D Mexico), Luiz Fernando Martins Castro (Brazilian Internet Steering Committee/CGI.br) and Nagla Rizk (Director of Access to Knowledge for Development Center - Egypt). Each speaker shall make a short oral intervention representing each respective entity and context and then we will moderate a debate with the IGF community, building upon the interventions.

Diversity

This session represents a wide diversity not only of gender, but also of geography and bringing a multistakeholder group, composed by
members of civil society, academia, government and private companies intending to bring a global and diverse view on policy perspectives
concerning Fake news and Elections.

This roundtable aims to provide a global view on fake news debates, especially during electoral periods. There were remarkable impacts of these false contents during the US and Brazilian presidential campaigns. This effort represents a strong partnership between the Institute for Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro (ITS Rio) and the think tanks members of the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC). The discussion addresses the importance of creating awareness around the fake news phenomenon in a scenario of polarization and radicalization of political discourse. The goal of this roundtable is to foster the debates of this international effort (NoC) to the IGF community, enlarging the conversation and deepening the understanding of online fake news cases in different contexts, and how it can affect global elections.

Eduardo Magrani will moderate the interaction amongst speakers and the audience. Carlos Affonso will moderate the engagement with online participants. Each speaker shall make a short oral intervention (around 7min) representing each respective entity and context and then we will moderate a debate with the IGF community, enlarging the conversation and deepening the understanding of AI inclusion challenges building upon the interventions.

Fake news can be understood as false, untruthful or out of context contents that are disseminated to promote disinformation to the public. The diffusion of the term occurred in December 2016, in the context of the US presidential campaign, and since then, people have been triying to define and understand better this phenomenon. In scenarios of radicalization of speeches and political polarization, there is a tendency to increase the number of fake news related to politicians and the election context in general. Recent researches demonstrate that there is an increased use of fake news in many contries, being responsable of a real democratic impact.

Online Participation

Carlos Affonso and Wolfgang Schulz will organize, alongside with the other speakers, a joint effort to promote online participation and engagement for the IGF community through social media and creating specific communication campaigns to be launched through each entity represented in this session.