#Disinfo2023: Thanks for joining us!

The EU DisinfoLab 2023 Annual Conference took place on 11 – 12 October 2023 at the Holiday Inn in Krakow, Poland.

The event brought together nearly 400 renowned professionals from diverse backgrounds to enjoy a mix of session formats digging into the pressing issues in the disinformation space, and exciting opportunities to exchange, learn and network!

This year, the sessions were not recorded, but you can find in our Conference Dossier the session summaries, and further down this page a gallery with a selection of photos below, as well as the links to the presentation slides of the different sessions in the Conference Programme (next to the name of the speakers).

Don’t miss next year’s conference – mark your calendars: #Disinfo2024 will take place in Riga, Latvia, on 9-10 October, 2023

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

The #Disinfo2023 programme included a range of panel sessions, interviews, keynotes, and workshops. Take a look!

TUESDAY, 10 OCTOBER

Get ready to dive into the conference spirit! Join us for a casual pre-conference gathering to connect with fellow attendees, and make new connections. See you there!

Meeting point: Szklanki bar, Jakuba 19, 31-057 Kraków (15–minute walk from Holiday Inn)

WEDNESDAY, 11 OCTOBER

  • Diana Wallis, President, EU DisinfoLab

PLENARY (DEGAS)

As much as we hear about conspiracy theories daily, the simplest question often remains unanswered and far from our understanding. Why do so many people believe in conspiracies? This is why we reached out to Brent Lee, who describes himself as a Recovering Conspiracist, and we are grateful he agreed to join us and share his incredible journey with us. Starting from 9/11 conspiracies, Brent will tell us how he went down every rabbit hole and got out of it. 

  • Brent Lee, Podcast host, “Some dare call it conspiracy”

Many EU DisinfoLab conference attendees will remember the moving presentation by James Le Mesurier at #Disinfo2018, where he warned us about the systematic harassment and disinformation targeting him and his work with the White Helmets. James’s widow, Emma, our friend and Board member, will share her experience of resisting the lies that followed James’s death as well as the challenges of her journey in restoring  the truth.

  • Emma Le Mesurier, EU DisinfoLab Board Member

Since 2014, the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia has highlighted the evolving nature of warfare, as new informational dimensions emerge and play significant roles (take the example of Sandworm). Fast forward to February 2022, Russia once again engaged in hostilities with Ukraine, this time capturing several regions. During this session, we will delve into how this particular conflict has transformed our understanding and conduct of contemporary warfare.

Chair: Susan Morgan, Independent Consultant

AI is becoming a growing topic in our space for its known capacity to generate fictitious content that looks hyper-realistic, its alleged capacity to tackle disinformation faster than any human moderation ever could, and its overall impact on our relationship with information in the post-truth context. In this session, we will catch up on the latest developments and question ourselves on the world that is opening in front of us.

Opening talk: Thomas Gouritin, AI expert Slides available here (pdf)

  • Noemie Krack, KU Leuven
  • Tyler Williams, Graphika
  • Beth Lambert, Logically

TRACK 1 (DEGAS)

TRACK 2 (RENOIR)

Chair: Maria Giovanna Sessa, EU DisinfoLabSlides available here (pdf)

Presentations: Disinformation trends and case studies

In this session, we’ll be looking at the latest disinformation trends observed by the community inside Europe, including climate change, migration, and pop culture conspiracy theories.

Forbidden Stories – the “Story Killers” project: a review of these investigations into disinformation

In February 2023, the Forbidden Stories consortium released a series of publications exploring, among others, “the deadly disinformation-for-hire industry”. Pursuing the work of assassinated journalists, we will hear how their investigations were conducted, including the infiltration of Team Jorge, a company specialised in manipulating elections and political information using troll armies, cyber espionage, and influencers.

Chair: Anna Gielewska, Reporters Foundation

We need to talk about mental health support

Our community is regularly exposed to violent content, online harassment, physical threats, lawsuits, or other types of “occupational hazards” such as burnouts. We need to build a stronger mental health support system to keep our work sustainable. This session will look into harms, but even more the solutions that can be put in place to build a stronger resilient community.

Keynote – Fighting back against harassment

  • Nina Jankowicz, Author, Counter-disinformation expert

Chair: Ana Romero, EU DisinfoLab

Dormant and persistent networks

In this opening, two speakers will present how operations like Facebook Hustles and Doppelganger are persistent. Spoiler alert: their perpetrators enjoy impunity and inaction.

The attention economy stack: tools and ways to act

Civil society can sometimes feel powerless when confronted with the mechanisms of  the attention economy. While access to data can definitely foster actions, many organisations have implemented ways to directly impact positive change. These are their stories.

Chair: Mathias Vermeulen, AWO

Presentation: Transparency is no silver bullet

Transparency reports offer valuable insights into how digital platforms manage and regulate harmful content, serving as a window into their policy enforcement practices. However, these reports can also be manipulated to serve as mere public relations tools, leaving room for distorted Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and inaccurate disclosures. This session will critically examine the limitations of transparency as a singular goal and challenge the notion that data is an infallible standard.

  • John Albert, AlgorithmWatch

Panel: Can we cure our data dependence?

While researchers often complain about the limitations and constraints in accessing platforms’ data in the past, recent announcements suggest that we may have even less access to data in the future. As we    must deal with the end of the “open era” (one could argue before we even knew it had started), we can’t help but ask ourselves: what can we do?

  • Brandi Geurkink, Mozilla
  • Alicia Wanless, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Kalina Bontcheva, University of Sheffield

Join us for a night-time tour of Krakow!

Meeting point: lobby of the conference venue, Holiday Inn

Led by an expert guide, the tour will venture through the city’s key historical landmarks, from the architectural jewels of the Old Town to the culturally rich Wawel Castle and Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz. We look forward to sharing an unforgettable, intellectually stimulating evening with you!

Please note, the event is subject to weather, so bring rain gear as a precaution.

The guided tour is offered by EU DisinfoLab.

THURSDAY, 12 OCTOBER

TRACK 1 (DEGAS)

TRACK 2 (RENOIR)

Chair: Sabrina Spieleder, EEAS

Keynote: Avengers, assemble! Volunteer communities countering online disinformation

Can simple citizens organise themselves to counter disinformation? In this presentation, we will discover how disinformation on WhatsApp was identified and debunked by simple Portuguese volunteers. Their cooperation with public authorities shows the potential of resilient communities in the fight In this session, we will learn how Information Operations experts identify phases of an online operation, also known as a “Kill Chain”. These phases all present vulnerabilities allowing actors to act against malicious actors.

Presentations: Tackling foreign interference at a national level, a benchmark of Member States initiatives

The European External Action Service and its pioneer initiative EUVsDisinfo showed an unprecedented way on how public authorities could respond to the disinformation threat. Eight years later, as the EU Member States are designing their own solutions, we’ll look at the different paths taken, between specific civil units and multi-stakeholder working groups and their preliminary results.

  • Hervé Letoqueux, Viginum (France)
  • Alejandro Gonzalez Fernandez, National Security Department (Spain)

Chair: Jakub Kalensky, Hybrid CoE

Presentation: Disinformation & disruption: An analysis of pro-Russia cyber-Enabled IOs during wartime in Ukraine

Cyber-enabled information operations have been a prominent feature of Russia’s strategy of information confrontation in support of their war in Ukraine. This presentation will explore how these operations’ cyber-enabled components are designed to disrupt multiple defence systems simultaneously.

Panel Discussion: 18 months of sanctions against Russian disinformation actors – what’s the impact?

Shortly after the Russian war against Ukraine began, the EU sanctioned Russian disinformation outlets. While Russian propaganda was still unfolding, additional Russian assets, such as Wagner-related entities, were put on the sanction list. This session will look at the role of civil society in identifying sanctionable assets, the impact of sanctions on the information space, and how Russian propaganda reshuffled its activities in response.

Chair: Raquel Miguel, EU DisinfoLab

Presentation: Designing an Online Operations Kill Chain

In this session, we will learn how Information Operations experts identify phases of an online operation, also known as a “Kill Chain”. These phases all present vulnerabilities allowing actors to act against malicious actors.

  • Ben Nimmo, Meta

Workshop: TikTok. Who’s there?

150 million users in Europe, repeated privacy and security concerns, absence of APIs, TikTok is a growing space in the EU information ecosystem. In this session, you will learn what researchers and journalists can do to counter disinformation on the platform.

Chair: Mattia Caniglia, The Brussels Hub, Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab  Slides available here (pdf)

Best practices for OSINT investigations, where to find them and how to apply them

In the past years, Osint has become a buzzword covering all types of online investigative work done by all kinds of actors. Becoming a central element in the community tackling disinformation, a group of organisations tried to design common guidelines. This session, led by the DFRLab, will provide an overview of the ObSINT Guidelines and will guide you through two case studies highlighting how they can be applied in real life Osint investigations.

Workshop: “How can I archive this?”

All investigators have been confronted with the same question: how can I preserve the information I’m collecting to keep a record of what will be removed from the Internet?

In this session, the DPA team will explore their journey, giving you all their Internet Archive tips, showcasing multiple methodologies to archive content.

PLENARY (DEGAS)

Chair: Emerson Brooking, DFRLab

In this session, we’ll shift perspectives to examine disinformation policies from various angles. Our speakers will attempt to pivot on some of the core questions we face daily. How is Meta addressing media capture by authoritarian states? Does being KPI-centric in transparency reports prevent us from holding abusers accountable? Why should we consider the DSA only from a European perspective and not look beyond?

Chair: Gregory Rohde, EU DisinfoLab Board Member

Introduction:

  • Carlos Hernandez, EFCSN and Fundacion Maldita

Join this session to get an update on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Code of Practice, and other ongoing EU regulatory and policy initiatives. We’ll also look at EU elections and what we should expect ahead of 2024.

  • Diana Wallis, President of the board of EU DisinfoLab, former Vice President of the European Parliament
  • Trisha Meyer, VUB, EDMO BELUX
  • Carlos Hernandez, EFCSN and Fundacion Maldita
  • Lubos Kuklis, Expert on digital governance, EU Commission’s DSA team

Chair: Diana Wallis, EU DisinfoLab President

 Are you recalling the “drop in the ocean” metaphor? At the EU DisinfoLab, we sometimes wonder: what’s the point of doing what we do, taking all these risks while disinformation spreads? When legislators sponsor new laws that encourage rather than disincentivise disinformation, we sigh and wish we didn’t have to recall the obvious again and again. Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO of Center for Countering Digital Hate, will share with us why we all must keep the faith and keep fighting for the good cause.

  • Imran Ahmed, Center for Countering Digital Hate

 Followed by closing remarks

Photos

Day 1

Photos by Bartek Dziedzic

#Disinfo2023: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

Practical information about #Disinfo2023 is recapped below.

Access

Please note that access to the conference venue will only be granted to people with an official #Disinfo2023 badge.

Venue

Holiday Inn Krakow. Address: Wielopole 4, 31-072 Kraków, Poland

FROM KRAKOW AIRPORT TO THE VENUE

BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT
  • The airport’s train station ‘Krakow Lotnisko’ is located in front of the airport, after the Hilton Garden Inn hotel.
  • Trains to the direction of Kraków Grzegórzki leave every 30 minutes, and transfer time is approximately 30 minutes.
  • You can buy your train ticket at the station or online. The price for a one-way ticket is 17PLN.
  • From Kraków Grzegórzki station, go west towards Jozefa Dietla avenue, follow the avenue, and then turn right on Wielopole Street. The hotel will be on your right side.
BY TAXI
  • Taxi: Krakow Airport is served with licenced and metered taxis, available 24/7. Exit the arrivals hall and follow signs to the official taxi rank – make sure to only board official taxis! Price until the venue is approximately 80-100 PLN.
  • Uber: Choose “Krakow Airport” in the app as a departure point and wait in the designated Uber pickup area. Price until the venue is around 50-70 PLN (but please note this prices can vary).

Taxis and Ubers accept card payments, but it is advised to have cash for public transport.

IN-PERSON EVENT

#Disinfo2023 is an in-person conference. We are excited to enjoy the networking time real-life events offer!

LIST OF ATTENDEES

If you consented to be included in the list of participants when registering, you’ll receive the list by email prior to the conference.

Social events & networking

Historic Nighttime Guided Tour of Krakow: Join us for a 90-minute night-time tour of Krakow on 11 October, after the end of the Day 1 conference programme. Led by an expert guide, the tour will venture through the city’s key historical landmarks, from the architectural jewels of the Old Town to the culturally rich Wawel Castle and Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz. We look forward to sharing an unforgettable, intellectually stimulating evening with you! Please note, the event is subject to weather, so bring rain gear as a precaution. The guided tour is offered by EU DisinfoLab.

Informal pre-conference get-together: Make sure to also book both the night before the start of the conference, 10 October, for our informal gathering that will take place at Szklanki bar (address: Jakuba 19, 31-057 Kraków, 15–minute walk from Holiday Inn), starting at 19:00.

These moments will be great opportunities to network with your peers! 

NO LIVE STREAMING!

No live streaming option will be provided, and the sessions will not be recorded.

Presentation slides will be made available shortly after the conference.

STAY WITH US AT THE CONFERENCE VENUE!

Book your accommodation at the conference venue Holiday Inn, and immerse yourself in #Disinfo2023. Network at any hour, retire to a comfortable room without leaving the site, and feel the heartbeat of the conference!

Access your special rate through this booking link, and enjoy a comfortable stay for 142€ per night (the price may slightly vary based on the exchange rate), breakfast included. Please note that this offer is available on a first-come, first-serve basis due to limited room availability. We encourage you to book early and enjoy the convenience and community spirit!

Other recommended hotels

In addition to the conference venue Holiday Inn, we have selected several other hotels nearby:

  • To stay at the Best Western Krakow Old Town, located within a 4-minute walking distance of the Holiday Inn, send an email to hotel@bwkrakow.pl or info@bwkrakow.pl mentioning the DISINFO2023 booking code. Special rate (breakfast included): 104€/night* upon availability.   

  • To stay at the Hotel Wielopole, located in front of the Holiday Inn, you can book through this link (before 10/08/2023). Special rate (breakfast included): 89€ to 135€/night* upon availability. 

  • To stay at the Leonardo Boutique Hotel, located within a 6-minute walking distance of the Holiday Inn, send an email to reservations.boutiquecitykrakow@leonardo-hotels.com (before 10/08/2023) mentioning the DISINFO2023 booking code. Special rate (breakfast included): 108€/night* upon availability.

  • To stay at the Campanile Hotel, located within a 6-minute walking distance of the Holiday Inn, send an email to conf.krakow@campanile.com (before 30/08/2023) mentioning the DISINFO2023 booking code. Special rate (breakfast included): 80€/night* upon availability.

* indicated prices might vary based on the exchange rate

Visa requests

Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to assist with individual or group Visa requests or processes.*

ABOUT KRAKOW

Welcome to the enchanting city of Krakow, Poland, where history meets modernity in a vibrant blend of culture and charm. As the former capital of Poland, Krakow boasts a rich heritage that dates back over a millennium. This picturesque city, nestled along the banks of the Vistula River, is a perfect backdrop for your conference.

GETTING AROUND

Krakow’s compact city center makes it easy to explore on foot. The Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a treasure trove of historic architecture, charming streets, and lively squares. For longer journeys, the city offers a well-connected public transportation system, including trams and buses.

MUST-SEE PLACES

  • Wawel Castle: Explore the stunning royal residence and witness the magnificent Wawel Cathedral.
  • Main Market Square (Rynek Główny): Stroll around Europe’s largest medieval square, home to the iconic Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and the historic St. Mary’s Basilica.
  • Kazimierz: Discover the Jewish Quarter’s rich history, art galleries, and vibrant nightlife.

…and no need to wander around alone looking for these gems – join us for the Historic Nighttime Guided Tour of Krakow on the evening of Day 1 (11 October)! Check the details in the conference programme and under section ‘Feel the community spirit’!

CULINARY DELIGHTS TO TRY

  • Pierogi: Traditional Polish dumplings with various fillings
  • Kielbasa: Delicious Polish sausages
  • Obwarzanek Krakowski: The city’s unique pretzel-shaped bread
  • Zurek: Sour rye soup
  • Zapiekanka: Krakow’s beloved open-faced sandwich, typically topped with mushrooms and cheese

Registration process

For our 2022 Annual Conference, we received more than 1,000 registrations. We expect similar numbers for #Disinfo2023, and unfortunately don’t have the capacity to accommodate them all. Therefore, once you’ve completed the registration steps on the registration platform, your request for joining the conference will be submitted to an approval process by the EU DisinfoLab organising team. Our conference being an event designed for professionals in the disinformation field, priority will be given to people working in this space.

Badge

Your #Disinfo2023 badge will be sent by email a few days before the conference so that you can print it in colour prior to the conference

Changes or cancellation

In case you need to make changes to the information you’ve provided us in your registration, you can use the link you’ve received in the email confirming your participation.

We are a small NGO, bearing the cost of organising a free and growing conference. Registered participants that do not attend the conference have a financial impact on our association. It also implies that another member of the community, still on the waitlist, cannot join us. If you are unable to attend the conference, we rely on you to cancel your participation (either through the link which you’ll find on your confirmation email or by reaching out to us). Please note that we track no-shows for future conference editions!

Photography

The EU DisinfoLab’s official photographer will capture moments during the event. If you prefer not to be photographed, you will be able to request a red lanyard for your badge at the registration desk on-site.

Speakers

By attending this two-day physical event, you will join leading experts and stakeholders from across the disinformation world for a mix of insightful panel sessions, inspiring interviews, keynotes and workshops provided by high-level speakers including:

  • Imran Ahmed, CEO, Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH);
  • Francesca Arcostanzo, Lead of the Digital Analysis Unit, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD);
  • Kalina Bontcheva, Senior Researcher in the Natural Language Processing Group, University of Sheffield;
  • Marc Faddoul, Director, AI Forensics;
  • Nina Jankowicz, Vice President, Center for Information Resilience (CIR);
  • Ines Narciso, VOST Europe;
  • Gabriella Roncone, Technical Threat Intelligence Analyst, Mandiant;
  • Jack Stubbs, Vice President of Intelligence, Graphika;
  • Stefan Voss, Head of Verification, DPA;
  • Alden Wahlstrom, Senior Analyst, Information Operations Team, Mandiant;
  • Alicia Wanless, Director, Partnership for Countering Influence Operations, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). 
This line-up will be updated regularly. More to come soon!

PROGRAMME

You can find the detailed conference programme above.

The two-day conference includes complimentary lunches and coffee breaks at the venue for all confirmed attendees.

#Disinfo2024: Save the date!

We hope you found our Annual Conference 2023 enjoyable, and we look forward to reconnecting. In 2024, our destination is Riga, Latvia. Mark your calendar for #Disinfo2024, scheduled for 9-10 October 2024!