Seminar for journalists: Fighting Disinformation in Technology & Digital Age
How technology could be used or misused in electoral campaign? This was the main topic debated during the two-day event in the European Parliament (EP), organised by the European Science-media Hub/ the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) together with the Directorate-General for Communication of the EP. The event brought together politicians, scientists and journalists, representing media from all 28 EU Member states.
Targeted messages, automated bots, the use if algorithms by the big tech companies and the challenges of disinformation – the topics provoked interesting and lively discussions. In addition to the workshop, the European Science-Media Hub (ESMH) organised training event for the journalists provided by the project to fight mis- and disinformation online First Draft. The trainers Eoghan Sweeney and Phoebe Arnold explained technics for verification of online information and debunking of false news on the web, including essential verification exercises on tracing sources, geolocation and reverse image searches.
Pavel Telicka, Vice-President of the European Parliament highlighted that disinformation affects each Member State differently and that the EU is still behind on tackling this issue. © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
Paul Rübig First Vice-Chair of STOA “What is the added value of this communications revolution? We need journalists to help us understand how we can enhance our democracy while fighting disinformation”. © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos took a look into the fake news industry in Kosovo.
Kajsa Falasca, Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Science, Centre for Study of Democracy and Communication Mid Sweden University made a research on election campaigns in Sweden: “The election did not suffer much influence from disinformation.” © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
Eva Kaili, STOA Chair, highlighted the need for smart regulations that respond to challenges without curtailing freedoms. She argued that, while it is important that citizens understand the implications of highly customised newsfeeds, if some people want to receive tailored information based upon their profiles then they should be free to do so.
María Teresa Giménez Barbat, Member of the European Parliament and STOA: “We are experience a change towards virtual communities and here will the right to privacy be a big issue”. © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
Jeroen van der Hoven, Delft University: “Micro targeting is the main threat against western democracy because it is only the receiver and sender who see that message. This can create bobbles, echo chambers, and threatens the shared public sphere. “ © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
Sophie Lecheler, University of Vienna: “Big tech companies have become an important actor because they control the entrees to information and they are not being transparent.” She therefore argued that algorithm logic should be taught a journalist schools.
Ines Levy, Liegey Muller Pons: “The recipe for a state of the art campaign requires Data + technology + Humans.” © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
David Stillwell from the University of Cambridge expressed concern about the lack of transparency and control over how individuals can be categorised and targeted, and also called for all advertisements to be stored in a repository so that claims and promises can be seen by everyone. © European Union 2018 – EP/photographer
