Description:
Democracies around the world are threatened by the manipulation of public opinion online, especially through the use of sophisticated and coordinated disinformation campaigns, paid trolls, and artificial amplification of political narratives on social networking websites. The actions of platforms, including the social media giants Facebook and Twitter, have received fierce scrutiny in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections and allegations of targeted foreign interference with that election campaign. Since then, political disinformation campaigns have been documented in 70 countries around the world, according to the Oxford Internet Institute, indicating the global scale of the challenge. While Internet companies have taken some measures to curtail the spread of propaganda and disinformation that can derail elections in countries around the world, Internet governance experts have raised policy implications of outsourcing content regulation to private entities on the one hand and on the other, human rights defenders have pointed out the deficiencies in platform responses to the political contexts of the global South and their inability to make reliable content decisions with adequate understanding of language nuances in non-English speaking countries. Meanwhile, governments are also moving fast to reclaim their authority in online spaces through content regulation and anti-misinformation laws. Independent fact-checkers offer an alternative but their efforts are eclipsed by the volume of partisan debates, populist rhetoric, and nefarious disinformation on the Internet. The prevailing situation encourages a multi-stakeholder rethink of policy and practical issues surrounding the global efforts to protect Internet users and democratic values from the harmful effects of digital disinformation. This workshop will examine the findings from studies and joint efforts by civil society and Internet companies to document and tackle election-related disinformation since 2017. The roundtable discussion will facilitate a frank and honest exchange on lessons learned from past attempts and offer suggestions for future collaboration between Internet platforms, independent fact-checkers, and governments to fight disinformation. The following format will be used: Global context of election-related disinformation (5 minutes), Case studies (Pakistan, India; 10 minutes), Overview of existing collaborative interventions against disinformation (10 minutes), Moderated discussion of roundtable questions (30 minutes), and Recommendations (5 minutes).
