EACC Network Webinar - How to do Business in the Age of Disinformation: Is Freedom of Speech on Social Media a Blessing or a Curse?

Description

The Digital Revolution is bringing sweeping change to all aspects of life and politics, impacting our everyday lives at a much faster pace than other revolutionary innovations in the past. Governments are responding to these changes, but there remains a consistent gap between technologists and business on the one side and lawmakers, and the different divisions of governments on the other side. In this power vacuum, technology is increasingly being misused as a vehicle for criminal activities or to host harmful or illegal content, including large-scale online manipulation and disinformation with profoundly corrosive effects on trust, consensus and democracy itself. This poses an enormous new challenge for the transatlantic relationship. The latter also being effected by the emergence of China as a disinformation actor with a global narrative is changing the information landscape.

In this spiral of mistrust, companies are not exempt from the pernicious effects of disinformation and have a fundamental role to play in combating the economic and security threats disinformation campaigns present. There is a need to develop common rules for governing the internet, and private sector actors are crucial for improving trust, security and stability online. It is only through their collaboration with civil society and governments that the integrity of the Internet can be protected, and the malign influence of state or state-backed actors from authoritarian countries be curtailed.

Based on the analysis of such salient topics such as free dataflow, cybersecurity, safeguarding the European and U.S. elections this webinar will discuss disinformation actors and how their activities can affect companies.

To explore these issues, this EACC Chapter-wide webinar will be led by Dr. Janka Oertel, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in conversation with Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, GOOGLE.

Speakers:



Vinton G. Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist
Google



Vinton G. Cerf co-designed the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet and is Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is a former member of the National Science Board and current member of the National Academy of Engineering and Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of ACM, IEEE, AAAS, and BCS. Cerf received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Prince of Asturias Award, Japan Prize, ACM Turing Award, Legion d’Honneur, the Franklin Medal, the Catalunya International Prize and 29 honorary degrees.





Janka Oertel
Director of the Asia Program
European Council of Foreign Relations



Dr. Janka Oertel previously worked as a Senior Fellow in the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Berlin office, where she focused on transatlantic China policy including on emerging technologies, Chinese foreign policy and security in East Asia. Prior to joining GMF, she served as a program director at Körber Foundation’s Berlin office. Dr. Janka holds a PhD from the University of Jena. Her dissertation focused on Chinese policies within the United Nations. She was a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP Berlin) and worked at United Nations Headquarters, New York, as a Carlo-Schmid-Fellow. She has published widely on topics related to security in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese foreign policy, 5G and emerging technologies, and United Nations peacekeeping.