Session
Organizer 1: Julia Haas, OSCE, Intergovernmental Organization
Organizer 2: Magnus Ag, International Media Support
Organizer 3: Juliana Oms, NIC.br
Speaker 1: Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, Denmark’s Tech Ambassador
Speaker 2: Julia Haas, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 3: Jan Lublinski, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Magnus Ag, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Maxence Melo, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 6: João Brant, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 7: Beatriz Barbosa, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Theater
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: We seek a 90-minute workshop in a theatre layout to bring global, diverse and cutting-edge stakeholders from tech, media, policy and government together with the IGF community celebrating and learning from some of the very best solutions the Internet has to offer. We invite the whole IGF community to join us to learn and take actionable steps to collectively realize this vision of digital public interest infrastructure. Within a tightly moderated format, we would like to prioritize at least 30 minutes of discussion with the audience between our pioneering speakers who have real-life and successful experience building and scaling the solutions the Internet needs.
A. What role can independent journalism play to bolster information integrity and contribute to building healthy online information systems?
B. How is information integrity conceptualized and addressed by different regulatory or developmental initiatives around the world? And what role can States play to bolster information integrity?
C. How can multi-stakeholder collaboration contribute to scaling and replicating best practices to safeguard journalism in the digital age and promote alternative discussion platforms in other geographies, cultures and linguistic communities?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will benefit from the discussion on the complex concept of information integrity through a multistakeholder perspective, and will explore different approaches to strengthening information integrity. The workshop discussion will not only identify the main perspectives around this topic and present policy guidance, but will also promote the exchange of concrete experiences and lessons learned about how different solutions have been applied. As we further seek to inspire the design of digital public (interest) infrastructure that services and is serviced by high-quality journalism, those attending will better understand the critical discussion around the concept of journalism as a public good. Those joining our session will have the opportunity to engage with high- and working-level stakeholders from tech, media, policy experts and government across the globe who are using their positions to (re)create a digital space that serves the public interest, not profits nor public figures.
Description:
The year of 2025 has so far brought drastic, consequential changes to our information ecosystem: social media platforms have altered their standards on content quality, the AI industry decreased its engagement in human rights discussions, and the international development community took massive reductions in funding. These alarming developments have put independent journalism at peak levels of economic, digital and physical risk.
To address these growing challenges and strengthen and scale promising solutions, the global community has established a number of standards and processes that can contribute to advance media viability, media freedom and thus information integrity. Situated within newly developed and on-going global governance developments are the OSCE recommendations on Media & Big Tech, which underline the interlinkages between media viability, visibility, and vigilance in the digital age, the Media Viability Manifesto, a civil society developed a framework to promote the economic sustainability of editorially independent and diverse media, and the Freedom Online Coalition Blueprint on Information Integrity.
Equally noteworthy are cutting-edge local solutions like alternative social media platform JamiiAfrica, which hosts public discussions and journalistic investigations that are moderated and fact-checked under empathetic, public interest principles. On the other hand, in Brazil, disputes arise over the regulation of platforms and their impact on journalistic activities, making consensus-building difficult to reach on the best way forward.
This session will bring together representatives from these diverse spaces within the IGF community to celebrate and learn from these potential tailorable solutions. Join us as we bust through threats to information integrity and strategize around how to build digital public interest infrastructure that aims to decrease the harms and increase the benefits from tech platforms in the information ecosystem.
This session aims to generate collaborative dialogue based on policy recommendations and concrete examples, leading to actionable strategies for policymakers and digital platforms on information integrity. Expected outcomes include a summary report that highlights key discussions and regulatory and technical strategies to inform future policies across stakeholder groups. The session seeks to present initiatives for collaboration in research, political organization, and technical partnerships to promote ongoing dialogue for strengthening information integrity and journalism globally. Participants are expected to gain insights into the evolving information integrity landscape and its practical applications, focusing on the application of regulatory and technical solutions in varied contexts. The session will explore challenges and opportunities faced by the Global Majority and Minority, including debates on the topic's convergence across jurisdictions. It will provide diverse perspectives on integrating human rights, ethics and responsibilities into digital spaces, aimed at creating a healthier information ecosystem.
Hybrid Format: The session will count on onsite and online moderators. The onsite moderator will oversee the organization of interventions and engage with the speakers to ensure that the session's goals will be sought appropriately, also with attention to meeting diversity expectations of the interventions, both by the speakers and the audience. The online moderator will take care of the flow of questions using all the online tools involved in the session, while selecting, reading, and guaranteeing that the onsite moderator will be aware of questions and comments from the remote audience (Zoom Chat and Q&A).