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Event description

Join the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center and Digital Forensic Research Lab on Wednesday, February 3, at 12:00 p.m. ET for a special “GeoTech Hour” on the role that social media platforms play in enabling modern mis- and disinformation.

In an age of hyper-connectivity and expansive digitization, social platforms play an outsized role in public life, serving as a sort of infrastructure for everything from academia and journalism, to public service and elections. Individuals across the world have unprecedented access to new information each day, and these social technologies are increasingly being relied upon by communities to organize and enact change. Many of these technologies were formed in the era of “techno-utopianism” — assuming a more connected and informed population would mean more open and democratic societies— but they have increasingly become the tools through which bad actors drive division. Whether through coordinated information operations or a simple retweet without verification, false or misleading information can spread rapidly and easily on social platforms, which, in turn, can undermine democratic processes or exacerbate public health crises.

With more than half the world’s population estimated to have gained access to the internet by 2018, better understanding the threats to the global information ecosystem is a matter of global stability.

Join our expert panelists for a wide-ranging discussion exploring the human, business, and technological incentives that have driven the growth of mis- and dis-information globally, and what a weaponized information space means for the world.

Featuring

Pablo Breuer
Nonresident Senior Fellow, GeoTech Center
Atlantic Council

Rose Jackson
Director, Policy Initiative, Digital Forensic Research Lab
Atlantic Council

Bevon Moore
CEO
Elevate U

Sara-Jayne Terp
Nonresident Senior Fellow, GeoTech Center
Atlantic Council

Hosted by

David Bray
Director, GeoTech Center
Atlantic Council