November 19, 2024, 11:00am-12:30pm
CITI Seminar on Global Digital Governance: Disinformation, Information Integrity, and International Cooperation
The explosive growth of online disinformation has elicited worldwide concern and calls for action over the past decade. Attention to its potential effects has been particularly acute in 2024 because of the US presidential election and the other national elections being held in over 70 countries with almost half of the world’s population. In recent years, policymakers and others have increasingly focused on the promotion of "information integrity" as a possible antidote to disinformation and related challenges. At the same time, some advocates for the freedom of expression have been highly critical of restrictive policy responses to disinformation. However, governments have cooperated to establish international norms and mechanisms in order to address the transnational nature of the perceived problem. For example, the European Union established a co-regulatory Code of Practice on Disinformation; thirty-two mostly industrialized countries endorsed a Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online; the Group of 20 released a ministerial statement noting the relevance of information integrity; and the UN General Assembly issued resolutions and reports on countering disinformation. In addition, the UN Secretary General proposed the establishment of a global Code of Conduct for Information Integrity on Digital Platforms and ultimately released a set of Global Principles for Information Integrity. Other UN and multilateral processes have addressed the issues in varying ways, and private sector and multistakeholder groupings also have pursued collaborative responses. Free speech organizations have also weighed in.
This webinar will delve into this issue nexus in two steps. First, we will consider whether and how online disinformation has evolved due to technological, economic and political change, and whether the promotion of "information integrity" provides a path toward an improved infosphere, or towards global restrictiveness. Second, we will explore whether international agreements can make a difference; their potential benefits and risks for human rights in a geopolitical landscape populated with illiberal regimes and movements; and the prospects for compliance with international norms by the disinformation creators and the distribution platforms.
This webinar will facilitate dialogue on these and related questions. A panel of leading experts on the topic will lead off, then the rest of the session will be devoted to open conversation among all interested attendees.
Introduction of the topic
Eli Noam is Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, Emeritus, and Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia Business School.
Moderator
William J. Drake is Director of International Studies at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.
Panelists
Guy Berger is Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Research ICT Africa. For eleven years he was a Senior Director at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, where he oversaw work on global communications and information policy and regulation. He recently was the lead author of two issue briefs on information integrity for the Group of 20. (South Africa)
Maria Paz Canales is Co-Head of Policy and Advocacy at Global Partners Digital, a social purpose company working to enable a digital environment underpinned by human rights. Previously, she co-founded and served as Executive Director at Derechos Digitales, one of the first digital rights organizations in Latin America. She holds a Master’s Degree with specialization in Law and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley. (France)
Jeanette Hofmann is Professor of Digital Policy at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is one of the founding directors of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), head of the research group Politics of Digitalization at Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), and Principal Investigator of the research group Technology, Power and Domination at the Weizenbaum Institute of the networked society in Berlin. (Germany)