This is a 45-minute event – 30 minutes conversation between the panellists, followed by a 15-minute Q and A.
Chair
Brian Runciman MBCS Head of Content and Insight, BCS
Panellists
Alexi Drew
Alicia Wanless
Leonie Haiden
Synopsis
When the US Capitol Hill was stormed in January 2021 people lost their lives. Disinformation literally kills. Several social media platforms responded afterward with changes in their approach to fake news and taking greater control of who says what on their platforms. Was it enough? What more needs to be done? What more can be done when the level of power previously associated with government sits in commercial hands?
Discussion outline
- Content moderation versus free speech – is the term ‘versus’ appropriate?
- The evolution of language and terminology in debate - are we all discussing the same thing?
- Can individuals have responsibly mediated rights?
- Government, big business, independent groups, philosophers… who needs to work together to give us societally beneficial communications platforms?
About the speakers
Alexi Drew is a research associate at The Policy Institute (King's College London), an associate fellow at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), and an executive manager at the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (EECRI). Her work focuses upon emerging technologies, the international norms surrounding them, and their impact upon international relations and geopolitics. Alexi is a member of the Women in International Security (WIIS) UK Chapter’s Leadership team and also a mentor for Girl Security.
Alicia Wanless is the director of the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Alicia researches how people shape—and are shaped—by a changing information space. With over a decade of experience in researching and analyzing the information environment, focusing on propaganda and information warfare, Wanless applies this learning to support government, military, and major tech companies to develop policies and integrate information activities into training programs that better reflect how the information environment is manipulated. Wanless is currently a PhD Researcher at King’s College London exploring alternative frameworks for understanding the information environment.
Leonie Haiden is a doctoral researcher specialising in strategic communications, international nuclear politics, and discourse analysis. She holds an undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford and a postgraduate degree in Non-Proliferation and International Security from King’s College London. Before joining the King's Centre for Strategic Communications Leonie worked at the Comprehensive Test-Ban-Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria, and at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia. She is co-editor and contributing author of the joint KCSC-NATO StratCom COE publication Fake News: A Roadmap.
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This event is brought to you by: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
