Session
Human Rights & Freedoms
Rights to Access and Information
Organizer 1: Michael Karanicolas, 🔒UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy
Organizer 2: Mira Milosevic, 🔒
Organizer 3: Laura Becana Ball, 🔒Global Forum for Media Development
Speaker 1: Courtney Radsch, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Damar Juniarto, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Ginny Badanes, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Mira Milosevic, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Michael Karanicolas, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Mira Milosevic, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Laura Becana Ball, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Round Table - 90 Min
1. What should be the processes and criteria for identification of credible and trusted journalism actors online, and what role should existing trust and news integrity initiatives and established ethical and professional standards play in this process?
2. Are there lessons to be drawn from recognised international processes and protocols and existing avenues of cooperation with platforms and other private sector stakeholders in developing identification and verification mechanisms, escalation channels, and crisis and emergency protocols.
3. Is there a potential benefit to establishing a voluntary multistakeholder mechanism to support these engagement process, and what should such a mechanism look like?
What will participants gain from attending this session? By addressing the policy questions suggested below, participants in the session will:
1. Gain insights into the identification of credible and trusted journalism actors online, including the role of trust initiatives and ethical standards.
2. Explore international processes and cooperation between platforms, private sector stakeholders, Civil Society and media organisations, focusing on improving identification, verification, and crisis protocols.
3. Learn about and contribute to the Tech and Journalism Crisis and Emergency Mechanism: participants will discuss the benefits of establishing a voluntary multistakeholder mechanism and will be expected to actively contribute to its development collaboratively, with the aim to strengthen content and account moderation systems and provide safeguards for online freedom of expression.
Overall, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the impact of content moderation on press freedom online, particularly during crisis and emergency situations, while collaborating on significant issues and developing best practices and protocols to address these challenges.
Description:
Content moderation issues become particularly acute in crisis situations, where time and visibility are essential and influence operations pose serious threats to independent media. Companies face a dual challenge of restricting the hostile uses of their platforms, such as for the spread of misinformation, war propaganda, or incitement to violence, while simultaneously serving as a critical infrastructure provider ensuring public access to information.
This session, which brings together a multistakeholder group of civil society, academic, industry, and news media professionals, will explore best practices for safeguarding online freedom of expression in times of crisis, with a particular emphasis on engagement and relationships between platforms and the press. The session builds on a satellite event hosted by the organizers on the sidelines of UNESCO’s “Internet for Trust” conference, and is part of a broader global consultation aimed at generating new mechanisms for trust and engagement between platforms and the press.
This session is taking place as part of a collaborative process to explore options for establishing a formal Tech and Journalism Crisis and Emergency Joint Industry Mechanism (T&JM), which would seek to strengthen content and account moderation systems by establishing an emergency and crisis mechanism for public interest journalistic organizations, thereby providing safeguards for online freedom of expression. The key objective of the consultation is to engage local and international civil society groups, journalism and media organisations, companies, and experts to discuss and develop this concept collaboratively.
Hybrid Format: The discussion will be divided into the three sections, addressing the policy questions. At the start of each section, the question will be introduced and addressed by both onsite and online speakers. Online participants will be invited to post their questions or wait until the moderators open the floor (both online and onsite). After the open discussion with participants, the key takeaways will be summarised and the moderators will introduce the next policy question, to finally close the workshop reviewing the final takeaways of each section and addressing any final remarks by speakers and attendees.
To ensure an accessible experience, the main channel of communication for online participants will be through the chat function. However, a shared document (which will be shared in the chat and via QR) will be used for the collection of comments, responses to the questions, relevant resources and feedback from the workshop participants and speakers.