IGF 2023 WS #540 Disinformation Forest: How social media shapes the Amazon

Organizer 1: Karla Giovanna Braga, Amazonian Youth Cooperation for Sustainable Development (COJOVEM)
Organizer 2: Mattheus Oliveira Silva Matth, COJOVEM

Speaker 1: Karla Giovanna Braga, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Wilson Guilherme Dias Pereira, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Erika Alvarez, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Viviane Tavares, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 5: Victor Carnevalli Durigan, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 6: Jose Mauro O de Almeida, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Moderator

Laura Pereira, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Online Moderator

Emanuella Ribeiro, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Rapporteur

Mattheus Oliveira Silva Matth, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Format

Round Table - 60 Min

Policy Question(s)

A) What are the dimensions that hate speeches assume on digital platforms in the Legal Amazon in the Latin American context of political polarization?

B) What are the transparency gaps on the platforms, who are the agents that finance the misinformation ecosystem regarding environmental themes and what interests do they serve?

C) What are the impacts of this process on the people who live in the Amazon, especially traditional peoples and communities, and what are their respective impacts on democracy?

D) What methodologies can be used by stakeholders to unravel the pathways of disinformation and financed distribution of online information?

What will participants gain from attending this session? 1) Awareness about the threats of financed disinformation networks that have direct impact in policy making for the environment, especially considering the protection of humanity's biggest rainforest
2) The knowledge of a robust methodology for researching financial flows of information in a context of lack standardized transparency platform rules, collaborating with the audience in order to collect best practices and innovative research strategies;
3) Strengthen the knowledge about the environmental impacts of disinformation in the Amazonian context, bringing panelists who are Amazonians to share their own experiences and realities;
4) Connect multistakeholders who can build knowledge-sharing networks that approach the theme of environmental and digital protection;

Description:

The dismantling of the world’s largest tropical forest has been accelerated by not only the climate crisis, but by a process of financed misinformation on behalf of economic and political powers, which threatens the regulation of crime and the protection of the Amazon. In this tension, the Internet becomes an important part of the battlefield over the future of climate sustainability. In this process,misinformation processes help to create a distorted debate that puts the integrity of the forest at risk.
The proposal of this panel, therefore, is based on the question: What are the dimensions that hate speeches and misinformation assume on digital platforms in the Amazon, specially in the context of political polarization?
Taking this into consideration, our goal is to highlight the relationship between environmental protection and the need for platform transparency and freedom of expression as an important issue for the Internet Governance ecosystem. We aim to do that by presenting relevant findings carried out by civil society research, which sought to unravel the opaque paths of the artificial distribution of information that circulates, affects and builds online and offline power in the Amazon territory. Since the Amazon is a global asset, such findings may help to advance Internet Governance debates about platform design, sustainability and environmental degradation, directly connected to the absence of connectivity. In summary, the Panel aims:
1) to help to identify which ways are used to finance online misinformation that help to expand the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest for economic and personal purposes.
2) to identify gaps in platform transparency regarding the funding of content and advertisements on platforms, revealing the importance of researching a context of current legislative proposals.
3) to map the impact of misinformation on Brazilian democracy and on those who live in the Amazonian territory.

Expected Outcomes

A) Building a Panel Report with the knowledge shared by both Panelists and Audiences, which can serve as a basis for similar research throughout the world;
B) Connecting multistakeholder organizations for both environmental and digital protection, strengthening the sharing of experiences, methodologies and learning;
C) Strengthening the awareness about global South Amazonian environmental issues that are deeply correlated with Internet Governance main questions;
D) Raise the need of the protection of environmental goods as an important policy question for building platform regulation laws and initiatives, which is not at the center of the debate today

Hybrid Format: The session will take into consideration the online participation needs of both the organizing team members, speakers, and the audience.
The online moderator will be responsible for ensuring that online the audiences have an equal opportunity to contribute to the session discussions and will be responsible for checking if the online audience has any issues, and whether there are questions or comments posted in the chat of the online meeting platform which need to be read aloud to the speakers and participants onsite. Also, we will share an access link so that people can contribute ideas and experiences to reduce misinformation around the world. The rapporteur will capture all contributions made by both the online and onsite audience which will contribute to the final report of the session