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The Internet, and in particular, social media, increasingly impact how people’s worldviews are shaped. In this panel, human rights and digital rights experts will address, in an engaging interview style panel, the impact of disinformation on human rights on freedom of expression but also on refugees rights (e.g., identify, security and freedom), platform accountability and the role of the media. Experts will also discuss how measures to foster the accountability and responsibility of platforms in the struggle against disinformation must not undermine data protection, privacy and freedom of expression, and must respect the right to anonymity. The speakers will present global examples of governments introducing measures which allegedly try to tackle online disinformation when in fact the objective is to suppress dissent, monitor and control the digital space. Speakers will also address the need for honest and positive communications efforts by the media and by political groups that promote civil discourse.

Organised in association with Access Now.

Let’s save our children from misinformation and misleading content.

How might we reshape media literacy – using visual tools, VR, AR, Voice Assistants – to interact with new generations, keep them safe and make them well-informed citizens

The news ecosystem is getting older and older. Adult people produce, consume and share content using platforms, tools and formats made by adults for adults. But what about children and teens?

This session will investigate ideas to fill the gap between the media and the so-called “Minecraft generation”. Journalists should explore new workflows, formats, types of content and platforms. At the same time, we need to interact with educators to define methods and frames to give to young people the right approach to news and media.

Not so long ago, every school or classroom had its own school magazine, where young “wannabe” journalists took their first steps as reporters and editors. Often, real journalists came to school, teaching students how to gather, verify, write news; and how to edit and realize a print issue. But we were also educated to read and consume news as well. Young generations got familiar with newspapers long before becoming newspaper readers.

Now, our children are the first fully mobile digital born generation and the way they interact with media is completely different from our state of mind. When they turn on the television, they expect to watch only on demand content, whenever they want. When they interact with a screen, the only ux they know is “touch”. They get used to creating content – to build a house in the Minecraft world, to record a tutorial on YouTube, to create a music videoclip on TikTok – and share it with their community.

As soon as they grow up, they’ll get in touch with the traditional news ecosystem, even if “digital”, “mobile”, “interactive”. And they’ll face the risks of misinformation, being unable to recognize quality, verified and worth trusting content. Although there are many studies about children’s approach to media and news, the question isn’t only how they consume and react to existing formats and content when they impact with them, or how educators can manage those kinds of tasks, but how we – as content producers and distributors – can reshape the news ecosystem to fit the younger generation’s attitudes, habits and approach. We need to find resources dedicated to creating different types of content and products, exploring the opportunities of emerging technologies, in particular virtual and augmented reality and voice user interfaces.

We should start to think of our children as the next generation of readers, and the next generation of journalists as well.

The targeting of journalists and news organisations – by states, populist politicians and deceptive corporate actors – makes fighting back against disinformation, misinformation and ‘malinformation’ a critical mission for journalism in 2019. But how can that best be achieved? What new knowledge, skills and tools do journalists and news publishers need to tackle the scourge of ‘information disorder’?

Leading international experts have worked with the UN to publish a new handbook to help guide journalists in the fightback. Journalism, F*ke News & Disinformation was commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the context of technology-enabled disinformation campaigns in which journalists and journalism have also become targets. The handbook is designed to strengthen journalism’s defences against disinformation, going beyond fact-checking and debunking to address ways journalists can avoid being sucked in by digital fakery.

This workshop will bring together the guide’s lead authors and journalists on the frontline of the fightback in India and the Philippines. We’ll walk you through some of the lessons in the handbook, focusing on the new digital literacies, investigative techniques and storytelling methods required to combat and report on disinformation. What does it take to dig into the stories behind disinformation and follow the often-hidden digital trails of duplicitous information circulated by states, populist politicians, corporate actors and others? When purveyors of toxic information turn on journalists – deliberately smearing them and subjecting them to threats of violence – what can be done to hold the line? Part of this mission involves helping the public differentiate between diverse legitimate narratives in journalism on the one hand, and an avalanche of defective, deceptive content on the other. How can we work collaboratively on that challenge?

The handbook is free to download here. You can read about the project’s goals here in this September 2018 Nieman Lab article.

James Ball, author of Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered The World, commissioner of the London School of Economics’ Truth, Trust and Technology report, and journalist covering online and Russian disinformation, surveys the landscape almost three years after “fake news” became the word of the year.

From Facebook’s efforts to tackle “dark ads” to state responses to Russian interference, from automated fact-checking to new rules for online information – lots has been tried and is being tried. But what works (and what doesn’t)? And are our priorities in the right place?