EU DisinfoLab 2024 Annual Conference

9-10 October, Riga, Latvia

As we count down the weeks to bringing our community together in Riga, we are thrilled to share the draft programme with you!

For two days, the conference will dive into the pressing issues of disinformation such as the impact of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) on elections, the new paradigms of generative AI, cybersecurity, and the role of communities and partnerships. We’ll also explore global perspectives, and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. We’re happy to have on board many esteemed speakers, including Nighat Dad, Imran Ahmed, Marie-Doha Besancenot, and Paula Gori, and representatives from Meta, the World Health Organization (WHO), Graphika, EU Commission, and Stanford University, among many others.

Discover the #Disinfo2024 programme, unfolding its content in three parallel tracks, below.

Don’t miss any part of this exciting programme! To join us on 9-10 October 2024 at the Radisson Blu Latvija Conference & Spa Hotel in Riga, Latvia, request your tickets now!

Request your ticket!

Day 0 - 8 October 2024

19:00 – (tbc)

Informal gathering

Get ready to dive into the conference spirit! Join us at the Skyline bar of our venue (Radisson Blu Latvija Conference & Spa Hotel) for a casual pre-conference gathering to connect with fellow attendees and make new connections.

Day 1 - 9 October 2024

Plenary

9:00

Opening

9:30

Interview

Invisibilising civil society: the ultimate target of propaganda

with Waad Al-Kateab (Filmmaker & Activist, Action For Sama) & Hamza Al-Kateab (Doctor & Activist, Action For Sama), interviewed by Liz Wahl

Journalists, whistle-blowers, activists but also doctors, artists, humanitarian workers… Often, the first targets of disinformation are the ones engaged to take care of the most vulnerable populations because of their deep commitment to truth and justice. This is why we wanted Waad and Hamza Al-Kateab, the director and protagnists of the awarded documentary For Sama to share insights from their own experience on how disinformation campaigns hinder humanitarian efforts and obstruct justice.

Waad Al-Kateab

Action For Sama

Waad Al-Kateab is a Syrian activist and award-winning filmmaker, whose debut feature film, For Sama won the Prix L’Œil d’or for best documentary at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a BAFTA for Best Documentary and a nomination at the Academy Awards 2020. For Sama is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war, and tells the story of Waad’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria, as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Waad’s new film, We Dare To Dream, follows the steadfast journey of athletes in the Olympic Refugee Team and had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023. Waad now lives in London with her family, and is also the co-founder of the Action For Sama advocacy campaign.

Hamza Al-Kateab

Action For Sama

Dr Hamza al-Kateab is a Syrian doctor, human rights activist and public health advocate. From 2012 to December 2016, Hamza delivered frontline medical care to thousands of people and he was one of the last remaining doctors in Eastern Aleppo as manager of Al-Quds Hospital. Hamza now dedicates his time to continued advocacy efforts around ending the targeting of hospitals in Syria and beyond, and he is the Co-Founder of Action For Sama alongside Waad. He’s currently undertaking a PhD at King’s College London, investigating medical evacuations for civilians in siege with the aim of identifying best practices to inform policy.

Liz Wahl

Independent journalist

Liz Wahl is an American journalist focusing on disinformation and extremism. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, international news outlets and documentaries, and reported from Ukraine for Scripps News in 2017. She made headlines globally in 2014 following her on-air resignation from RT America, publicly denouncing its distorted coverage of the war on Ukraine and Russian intervention in Crimea. Wahl has spoken internationally about modern propaganda and media literacy.

10:15 Coffee break

Track 1

11:00

Panel

Election year: a live stress test for democracy against FIMI

Chaired by Filip Grzegorzewski (EEAS) with Paula Gori (EDMO), Benjamin Shultz (The America Sunlight Project), & Ben Graham Jones

This session will unfold the disinformation observed during the last election cycles including Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). The discussion will expand to consider the measures being taken, the successes and challenges remaining, a few weeks before crucial US elections.

Paula Gori

EDMO

bio

Paula Gori is the Secretary-General and Coordinator of EDMO base at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute , where she is a member of the management team. She has more than 10 years of experience in electronic communications and media regulation. Prior to EDMO she was the Coordinator of the Florence School of Regulation – Communications and Media, which offers training, policy and research activities on electronic communications regulation and competition and she collaborated with the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, which she coordinated during the initial set-up phase back in 2012. She was for several years the Scientific Coordinator of the Annual Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics and she is one of the authors of the report for the European Commission on European Union competences in respect of media pluralism and media freedom. Paula has a legal background and is a qualified civil mediator.

Benjamin Shultz

The American Sunlight Project

bio

Benjamin Shultz is a Researcher at the American Sunlight Project, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC focused on countering disinformation and increasing the cost of lies that undermine democracy. Ben maintains an affiliation as an Artificial Intelligence Expert with the Council of Europe International Cooperation Group on Drugs and Addiction (Pompidou Group) in Strasbourg, France, where he formerly served as a trainee. Ben previously worked with Deloitte as a lead analyst on the firm’s Foreign Malign Influence Team, after serving as a Disinformation Analyst with DebunkEU, a media literacy organization based in Vilnius, Lithuania. He holds an MA in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University, as well as a BA in Political Science from Sonoma State University.

Ben Graham-Jones
Filip Grzegorzewski

EEAS

Track 2

11:00

Session

Cybersecurity and Information operation: converging interests

Chaired by Francesca Bosco (Cyberpeace Institute) with Daniel Kapellman (Mandiant), Hervé Letoqueux (Viginum), & Amy Larsen (Microsoft)

Many stakeholders in this field observe convergence between Information operations and cybersecurity operations. One good example is the growth of hacktivist movements at the cross-border between these two fields. This session will also look at how a cybersecurity framework can help better monitor these operations.

Daniel Kapellman

Mandiant

bio

Information Operations Team Lead and subject matter expert for cyber physical threats in Google Mandiant. He also coordinates the development of solutions to collect and analyze threat intelligence data. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences. As a former Fulbright scholar from Mexico, he holds a master’s degree from the University of Washington specialized in Information Security and Risk Management. In 2017, he was awarded first place at Kaspersky Academy Talent Lab’s competition for designing an application to address security beyond anti-virus.

Hervé Letoqueux

VIGINUM

bio

Hervé Letoqueux is a former french judicial customs officer. After three years as a special assistant on digital forensic an OSINT topics for the antiterrorists investigative judges in Paris after the Paris attacks. He joined the french national CERT (ANSSI) for three years to create an OSINT team in the field of Cyber Threat Intelligence. He now works as head of the operations division at VIGINUM, the french agency in charge of tackling foreign digital interferences at the SGDSN. The operation division includes a state-of-art operational datalab (5 datascientists), daily dealing with AI.

Amy Larsen

Microsoft

Francesca Bosco

Cyberpeace Institute

Track 3

11:00

Session

Biases, polarisation, and psychology: human beings as part of the problem and the solution

Chaired by Lea Frühwirth (CeMAS) with Robin Blom (Ball State University) and Celia Davies (Moonshot)

This session delves into how polarisation, cognitive biases, and psychology influence public discourse and the spread of disinformation. Considerations on cognitive biases, influence techniques, and trust cycles will emerge from compelling case studies, introducing tools to better reach when our minds are confronted with false or inaccurate information.

Robin Blom

Ball State University

bio

Robin Blom is a Professor of Journalism at Ball State University in Indiana, USA. He is also an affiliate professor in the Honors College, for which he teaches classes about eyewitness misidentification and social injustice, as well as pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. His research focuses on the role of eyewitness testimony in journalism, as well as expectancy violations in media bias perceptions. Blom is the co-editor of Teacher Race: Struggles, Strategies, and Scholarship for the Mass Communication Classroom. He was a newspaper reporter in The Netherlands before entering academia. Blom has earned degrees from Hogeschool van Utrecht (B.A., journalism), Point Park University (M.A., journalism and mass communication), and Michigan State University (Ph.D., media and information studies).

Celia Davies

Moonshot

bio

Celia is the Director of International Programmes and the Director of Ethics at Moonshot, with over 11 years of experience in rights-based interventions to counter online harms and protecting free expression. At Moonshot, she leads teams to develop methodologies to address online harms, including violent extremism, mis/disinformation, and violent misogyny. Previously, Celia lived and worked in the South Caucasus working on media freedom, disinformation, and human rights across Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

Lea Frühwirth

CeMAS

bio

Lea Frühwirth is a senior researcher at CeMAS and a psychologist. She focuses on the impact of digital discourse on society and politics, especially on mechanisms of manipulative content. As a senior researcher at CeMAS, she focuses on disinformation, propaganda and conspiracy ideology.

12:00 Lunch break

12:30 Lunch presentation (sponsored by Gerulata)

At 12:30 we will have a lunch presentation with Michal Trnka, the presentation is sponsored by Gerulata Technologies.

Track 1

13:15

Session

Artificial intelligence, artificial information? A new acceleration of the (dis)information cycle

Chaired by Raquel Miguel Serrano (EU DisinfoLab) with Cristina Lopez G (Graphika), Matyas Bohacek (Stanford University) & Christo Buschek (Der SPIEGEL / Paper Trail Media)

From AI-generated news channel to the investigation of model biases, AI is cooked at all sauces. This session convenes experts to explore the complex threats that artificial intelligence (AI) – and generative AI – present to news availability and integrity, public access to information and how online communities are getting together to abuse the safeguards implemented.

Cristina Lopez G

Graphika

Cristina López G. researches networks of online influence and their distinct dynamics at Graphika, a US-based company that maps conversations and social media communities based on network science. Before joining Graphika as a Senior Analyst, Cristina managed Data & Society’s Disinformation Action Lab, which focused on networked responses to communications threats specific to the 2020 U.S. Census. Previously, she specialized in the analysis of extremist networks and the spread of online hate as Deputy Director on Extremism at Media Matters, a political media watchdog based in Washington, DC. She holds an undergraduate law degree from Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios (ESEN) and a Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University. Born and raised in El Salvador, Cristina is based in Washington, DC.

Matyas Bohacek

Stanford University

Matyas Bohacek is a student researcher at Stanford University, advised by Professor Hany Farid from UC Berkeley. His research focuses on generative AI, deepfake detection, and other problems at the intersection of AI and media forensics. His recent projects include developing a detector of deepfakes with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and creating a deepfake CNN news anchor, which opened a primetime news show spreading awareness of AI threats. In the past, Matyas worked on AI for accessibility, developing a state-of-the-art sign language translator from video. He also co-founded an exited Verifee, an AI-based app for disinformation detection in Central and Eastern Europe, backed by Google. Matyas is a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 list in Czechia and a recipient of the Innovator of the Year in Czechia. Matyas’ work has been featured in Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among others.

Christo Buschek

Der SPIEGEL / Paper Trail Media

Christo Buschek is an independent software developer and investigative journalist at Der SPIEGEL and Paper Trail Media. He develops tools and methods for data-driven investigations. In collaboration with Alison Killing and Megha Rajagopalan, Buschek published an investigation exposing an extensive infrastructure in Xinjiang, China, dedicated to long-term detention and incarceration. This investigation, titled “Built to Last,” has received prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Additionally, Buschek is a Knowing Machines fellow at the Engelbert Center for Policy and Law at New York University, where he is involved in a research project that examines the histories, practices, and politics of training machine learning systems to interpret the world.

Raquel Miguel Serrano

EU DisinfoLab

Raquel Miguel Serrano is a senior researcher at EU DisinfoLab. She has a background in journalism and spent most of her professional career working for the German press agency DPA until 2019, when she shifted her focus to disinformation. Raquel received a Master’s degree in Cyber Intelligence, and began working with the EU DisinfoLab. She is the author of multiple articles, mainly focused on mis- and disinformation circulating in Spain and Germany, but also on more comprehensive topics such as the impact risk of online disinformation or pre-bunking as a tool to counter information disorders. Recently, she has been working in other areas, such as FIMI or the challenges posed by generative IA.

Additionally, Buschek is a Knowing Machines fellow at the Engelbert Center for Policy and Law at New York University, where he is involved in a research project that examines the histories, practices, and politics of training machine learning systems to interpret the world.

14:20

Session

Leveraging AI to counter disininformation

Chaired by Kalina Bontcheva (University of Sheffield, VeraAI) with a representative from VIGINUM, & Lyric Jain (Logically)

Can the democratisation of access to AI capacities support the counter-disinformation community? In this session we’ll look into how AI can be leveraged to improve research, investigation and hold powerful stakeholders accountable.

TBA

VIGINUM

Lyric Jain

Logically

Kalina Bontcheva

University of Sheffield, VeraAI

Other speakers to be announced

Track 2

13:15

Panel

Doppelganger: the need for a community approach

Chaired by Alexandre Alaphilippe (EU DisinfoLab) with Brian Liston (Recorded Future) & Sarah Thust (Correctiv)

Is it cyber? Is it hybrid? Is it IO? Since 2022, the Doppelganger operation has been ticking all the boxes of the Russian disinformation playbook. But when such operations are designed, how is the counter-disinformation community reacting? In this session, we’ll try to discuss how different stakeholders, even coming from diverse environments, have been able to cooperate together, designing the first steps of a community approach to disinformation.

Brian Liston

Recorded Future

Brian Liston is a Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at the Boston, Massachusetts-based intelligence company Recorded Future. Brian specializes in researching Russian malign influence operations, propaganda, and disinformation. His other interests include conducting open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigations, Eastern European politics, and international election security. He holds a master’s degree in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Sarah Thust

Correctiv

Sarah Thust has been working for the CORRECTIV fact-checking team in Germany since summer 2020. She studied journalism and psychology at the University of Leipzig and worked for three years, until 2013 as freelance reporter in Cambodia. After her return to Germany, she specialized in debunking misinformation as well as investigating Osint and Telegram.

Alexandre Alaphilippe

EU DisinfoLab

Alexandre Alaphilippe is the Executive director and co-founder of the EU DisinfoLab. Since 2017, he has coordinated work on some of the organisation’s largest investigations into Information Operations linked to Russia, India and China. In 2022, he led the exposure of Doppelganger, which has been labeled as one of the largest information operation from Russia in the past years. He is a member of a number of working groups in Brussels and Washington DC linked to platform regulation, transatlantic relations, and hybrid threats, where he emphasises the role of civil society in maintaining democratic values. He has published papers for the Brookings Institution and his work has been featured on CNN, BBC, Le Monde and Politico.

14:20

Panel

Disrupting disinformation: combatting Information Operations effectively

Chaired by Carl Miller (Demos) with Viktoras Dauksas (DebunkEU), Baiba Braze (Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs), & Christine Allan de Lavenne (SIDE Avocats)

This session will delve into how disruption of Information Operations (IOs) and FIMI can happen. We’ll investigate enforcing sanctions as an answer to these operations, considering legal frameworks, international cooperation, and the challenges faced in ensuring compliance and effectiveness in the fight against disinformation.

Carl Miller

Demos

Carl Miller founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos in 2011 and CASM Technology in 2014, and has spent the last decade researching disinformation, social media intelligence (SOCMINT), extremism, online electoral interference, radicalisation, digital politics, conspiracy theories, cyber-crime, and Internet governance. He is the author of The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab (Penguin Random House), and the presenter of Power Trip: The Age of AI (Intelligence Squared).

Viktoras Dauksas

DebunkEU

Baiba Braze

Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Christine Allan de Lavenne

SIDE advocates​

Track 3

13:15

Session

Concerning disinformative trends: safeguarding public health and climate action

Chaired by Ana Romero (EU DisinfoLab) with Elodie Ho (the World Health Organization – Africa Infodemic Response Alliance), Aleksandra Atanasova (Reset.Tech) & Pragnya Senapati (Ripple Research)

This session addresses the intertwined challenges of health disinformation and climate disinformation. Inaccurate coverage discouraging life-saving vaccines, advertising unapproved medical supplements, or spreading lies about climate change and its impact on our existence will animate the conversation, highlighting the need for a unified response to protect public health and climate action initiatives.

Elodie Ho

the World Health Organization (WHO) - Africa Infodemic Response Alliance

Elodie is a humanitarian response specialist, with 15 years of experience in leading projects in food security, health, and cash assistance across diverse regions such as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

With a Master’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Public Health, Elodie is passionate about understanding social and behavioral drivers and improving community participation in health emergencies.
In 2021, at the height of the Covid19 pandemic, Elodie joined the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA) as the Country Support Lead. In this role, she had the opportunity to pilot infodemic management approaches in Africa to combat mis/disinformation and improve information ecosystems.
Currently, Elodie is the AIRA Coordinator for the World Health Organization in the African Region. In this capacity, she strives to foster collaboration and coordination among UN agencies, NGOs, media and fact-checking organizations, and research institutes to ensure accurate information reached those most needed it during health crises.

Aleksandra Atanasova

Reset.Tech

Pragnya Senapati

Ripple Research

Pragnya Senapati leads Policy and Research for Ripple Research, a Switzerland-based advisory firm that works with policymakers, international organizations, and philanthropies to build resilient societies – online and offline. Her background in public policy and legal studies, combined with her expertise in community-led climate action and sustainability initiatives, informs her comprehensive approach to navigating complex societal challenges.  In the last few years, Ripple Research has been involved in several projects that explore the prevalence and impact of misinformation on public discourse and policy decisions across key areas such as climate change, public health, digital democracy, and human rights. Using large-scale behavioral and cultural insights, our research exposes how bad-faith actors hijack online conversations to exacerbate societal polarization and impede progress on climate action. Most recently, we uncovered narratives, events, and key “misinfluencers” fueling false information surrounding sustainable food systems in the context of the 2023 Dutch Farmer protests. Additionally, we have designed and delivered trust-building frameworks and infodemic management strategies to help governments and other public institutions counter misinformation in times of crisis and uncertainty. Our recommendations have informed advocacy campaigns, program design, and policy interventions that encourage social and behavior change at scale. We also developed capacity-building training and coaching sessions on responsible information sharing for a diverse range of stakeholders including bilateral organizations, UN agencies, high-growth social enterprises, academic institutions, and associated media representatives.

Ana Romero

EU DisinfoLab

Ana Romero-Vicente works as a researcher at EU DisinfoLab, where she analyses and counters climate change disinformation and analyses the monetisation of disinformation.

14:20

Session

Community-driven change: collaborative efforts from civil society

Chaired by Paolo Cesarini (EDMO) with Amaury Lesplingart (Check First), Ana Revenco (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ, project Info Trust Alliance – Moldova) & Shannon Raj Singh (Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue)

This session explores the essential role of communities and partnerships in tackling complex challenges through strategic communication and technology. The focus will be on exploring cross-regional and cross-sector collaborations to engage in the fight against disinformation and malign influences collectively.

Amaury Lesplingart

Check First

Amaury is the CTO and co-founder of CheckFirst, where his expertise in full stack development drives innovation. With a background in founding multiple companies and significant roles in international corporations, his career is marked by diverse technological accomplishments. As an expert for the Mozilla Foundation, the European Commission and many other organisations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) amongst other topics, he has contributed to important discussions in the tech world. His participation in the ObSINT project under the EFCSN project highlights his commitment to ethical standards in open-source research. His engagement extends to sharing knowledge at various prestigious platforms, including the DFRLAb Digital Sherlocks and the SANS Institute.

Ana Revenco

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ, project Info Trust Alliance – Moldova

Shannon Raj Singh

Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Paolo Cesarini

EDMO

15:20 Coffee break

Track 1

16:00

Keynote

“Please generate an openAI Keynote title for #Disinfo2024”

Chaired by Ellen Judson with Ryan Fugit

About Session

With their content generation capabilities, AI companies hold a unique position upstream of certain threat activities. What is OpenAI’s role in addressing the evolving landscape of threats, and what steps can be taken to mitigate these challenges? In this session, OpenAI Director Ryan Fugit, who leads the company’s Investigations Team, will share insights into AI-driven tools that enhance investigative efficiency. Additionally, you will learn more about OpenAI’s transparency reports and information-sharing processes.

Ellen Judson

Global Witness

Ryan Fugit

OpenAI

Ryan Fugit is a seasoned leader in the tech industry, having led intelligence and cybersecurity teams at Google, Netflix, and, most recently, OpenAI, focused on safeguarding users and countering digital threats. Earlier in his career, Ryan served as an officer in the United States government and Army, specializing in geopolitical, cyber, and counterterrorism efforts.

Track 2

16:00

Panel

“We’re not afraid”: pushing back disinformers

with Ilya Ber (Provereno/Delfi), Lola Tagaeva (Vertska) & Imran Ahmed (Center for Countering Digital Hate), chaired by Gunta Sloga (the Baltic Center for Media Excellence)

Harassment, lawfare, public defamation: the current threat level against the community puts the core of civil society engagement at risk. This session aims to share positive examples of brave individuals and organisations with our community. We will hear from Russian journalists who had to flee their country to continue their crucial work of bringing the truth to the Russian population. We’ll also hear from Imran Ahmed, who will share his insights on how to resist the harassment strategies designed to hurt the CCDH. Each of them had to make hard choices, sometimes rebuild everything from scratch, and yet, they kept up with their ethics and courage to stand up against disinformers.

Ilya Ber

Provereno/Delfi

Lola Tagaeva

Vertska

Lola Tagaeva is a Russian political journalist, editor, media manager, and organizer of gender literacy festivals. Founder of Verstka, which she launched in April 2022, she was its chief editor until August 2023 and is still its publisher. From 2009 to 2011, Tagaeva was a correspondent for the politics section at Novaya Gazeta. In 2013–2014, she was an observer at Slon.ru and in 2014–2015, she worked for the politics section at RBC. Tagaeva also worked as a correspondent and managing editor of news at TV Rain.

Imran Ahmed

Center for Countering Digital Hate

Imran Ahmed is the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington DC, that is at the forefront of countering the social and psychological malignancies of social media, including online hate, extremism, disinformation, and content and algorithms that hurt users’ mental health.

As one of the world’s foremost authorities on these issues, Imran has dedicated his career to researching and exposing the dangers of social media platforms in the absence of meaningful checks and balances. With his expertise and unwavering commitment to this cause, Imran advises legislators and policymakers around the globe on how to hold social media companies accountable for the content they host and promote by encouraging transparency and ensuring companies take responsibility for the harms they create.

Imran is a sought-after voice in the media, appearing regularly on national and international news outlets and documentaries discussing the alarming rise of hate, misinformation, and extremism online, and the critical work CCDH is doing to combat these threats. He is widely recognized as an authority on the social and psychological impacts of mis- and disinformation online, including identity-based hate, extremism, disinformation, and the spread of conspiracy theories.

Under Imran’s visionary leadership, CCDH has become the world’s foremost organization dedicated to holding social media companies accountable for their practices and the real-world consequences for the content they promote. Through rigorous research, advocacy, and collaboration with policymakers, CCDH is at the forefront of efforts to create safer, more responsible digital spaces for all.

Gunta Sloga

The Baltic Center for Media Excellence

Gunta is a strong supporter of the freedom of speech and independent media in the Baltics. She is an award-winning Latvian journalist and editor, who has won a wide recognition for her reporting and investigations for the flagship Latvian daily newspaper “Diena” and other media outlets. As a commissioning editor for the Latvian Public Television she oversaw development of high quality factual entertainment, original drama and other content and directly contributed to future strategies of the public broadcaster. Gunta is taking active role in journalism non-profits aimed at strengthening quality journalism, and was in charge of the Media Programme at the Soros Foundation Latvia, which supported new media initiatives and professional dialogue. Currently she is the executive director of Baltic Centre for Media Excellence, a regional resource centre for journalists and a hub of media literacy initiatives.

Session in partnership with the Baltic Center for Media Excellence

Track 3

16:00

Session

Not all facts: addressing identity-based disinformation and defending rights
Chaired by Zinc Networks/Artemis with Sanne Thijssen (Shake the dust), Patryk Grażewicz (Pravda) & Vic Parsons (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) (tbc)

This session addresses the growing challenge of gender- and identity-based disinformation that threatens rights under the guise of defending conservative values. Experts will share their findings on tackling disinformation and fearmongering attacks against marginalised communities, presenting global efforts to track and expose misinformation surrounding reproductive rights, and exploring current recommendations and actionable strategies for addressing this dangerous phenomenon effectively.

Sanne Thijssen

Shake the dust

Patryk Grażewicz

Pravda

Since 2017, Patryk has been professionally involved in OSINT investigations, threat monitoring, and topical research. He is a member of the fact-checking IFCN-affiliated Pravda Association and OSINT for Ukraine. He has cooperated as a freelancer with various intelligence and brand protection companies, media outlets, and internet creators worldwide. His professional interests include radicalism, political disinformation, Russian influence, pseudoscience, and online communities. Privately, he loves to travel, both physically and intellectually.

Vic Parsons

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Vic Parsons is a freelance journalist writing about queer and trans politics. They are currently working at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism on a project called Trans+ Voices, which is investigating the impact of political transphobia on the daily lives of trans and nonbinary people in the UK. Vic is based in London.

Plenary

17:30

Screening

For Sama

with the presence of the creators and protagonists of the film: Waad Al-Kateab (Filmmaker & Activist, Action For Sama) & Hamza Al-Kateab (Doctor & Activist, Action For Sama)

FOR SAMA is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. 

Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as she wrestles with an impossible choice – whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

Waad Al-Kateab

Action For Sama

Waad Al-Kateab is a Syrian activist and award-winning filmmaker, whose debut feature film, For Sama won the Prix L’Œil d’or for best documentary at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a BAFTA for Best Documentary and a nomination at the Academy Awards 2020. For Sama is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war, and tells the story of Waad’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria, as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Waad’s new film, We Dare To Dream, follows the steadfast journey of athletes in the Olympic Refugee Team and had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023. Waad now lives in London with her family, and is also the co-founder of the Action For Sama advocacy campaign.

Hamza Al-Kateab

Action For Sama

Dr Hamza al-Kateab is a Syrian doctor, human rights activist and public health advocate. From 2012 to December 2016, Hamza delivered frontline medical care to thousands of people and he was one of the last remaining doctors in Eastern Aleppo as manager of Al-Quds Hospital. Hamza now dedicates his time to continued advocacy efforts around ending the targeting of hospitals in Syria and beyond, and he is the Co-Founder of Action For Sama alongside Waad. He’s currently undertaking a PhD at King’s College London, investigating medical evacuations for civilians in siege with the aim of identifying best practices to inform policy.

19:45

Social event

Historic Nighttime Guided Tour of Riga

Join us for a one-hour night-time tour of Riga where the true facts of history meet disinformation mingling. Led by expert guides, the tour will venture through the city’s key historical landmarks and hidden gems, and create lasting memories in an intellectually stimulating evening. Please note, the event is subject to weather conditions, so bring rain gear as a precaution. We recommend having dinner before the tour.

The guided tour is offered by EU DisinfoLab.

Day 2 - 10 October 2024

Track 1

9:00

Session

Leveraging platform transparency to detect and report on disinformation

with a Meta representative and a TikTok Representative

Concerns are blossoming regarding the provisions for access to platforms’ data under the DSA. While the delegated act is expected to clarify, researchers, civil society, and journalists are faced with the deprecation of CrowdTangle, different content and advertising libraries or the expensive Research API from X. In this session, platforms’ representatives will present the tools they’re making available to the community. A rare opportunity to ask all the questions about how they will enable more research.

Speakers to be announced

10:05

Keynote

The DSA Update

Chaired by Greg Rohde (EU DisinfoLab) with Joe McNamee (EU DisinfoLab) 

Delegated acts, Access to data, “Strengthened” Code of Practice reborn-as-Code-of-Conduct; the DSA update is designed to update you on the latest from the regulatory front line.

Joe McNamee

EU DIsinfoLab

Joe McNamee has been working on topics related to internet regulation for over 20 years. Prior to his current role as Senior Policy Expert at EU DisinfoLab, he worked as policy adviser for a political group in the European Parliament. From 2009 to 2018, he led European Digital Rights, the association of digital civil rights organisations in Europe for nine years, working on major topics such as the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Copyright Directive. Prior to this, Joe worked for a political consultancy specialised in telecommunications and internet policy, where he led three research projects funded by the European Commission. During this time, he also worked on the EU’s E-Commerce (the predecessor to the DSA) and ePrivacy Directives. Joe holds master’s degrees in European Politics and in International Law.

Greg Rohde

EU DisinfoLab

Track 2

9:00

Session

Bearing the truth: the legacy of Russian disinformation

with Vera Tolz (The University of Manchester) & Kevin Limonier (GEODE), chaired by Susan Morgan (EU DisinfoLab)

This session focuses on the multifaceted history of Russian disinformation, digging into the origins, evolution, and tactics of campaigns that have been and will be shaping the geopolitical landscapes over the next decades.

Vera Tolz

The University of Manchester

Vera Tolz is Sir William Mather Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. She has published widely on various aspects of Russian nationalism, media politics and the relationship between intellectuals and the state in the imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Her most recent books include Nation, Ethnicity and Race on Russian Television: Mediating Post-Soviet Difference (with Stephen Hutchings); ‘Russia’s Own Orient’: The Politics of Identity and Oriental Studies in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Periods; and Russia: Inventing the Nation. She recently completed an AHRC-funded collaborative research project on RT (formerly Russia Today). The main outcome of this project is the book with Cornell University Press (2024), titled Russia, Disinformation and the Liberal Order: RT as Populist Pariah (co-authored with Stephen Hutchings, Precious Chatterje-Doody, Rhys Crilley and Marie Gillespie). She is currently working on a new project ‘(Mis)Translating Deceit after the Cold War: Disinformation as a Translingual, Discursive Dynamic’, which is funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Kevin Limonier

GEODE

Kevin Limonier is an associate professor in geography and Slavic studies at the French Institute of Geopolitics (University of Paris 8), and vice director of Geode (www.geode.science), a research center dedicated to the geopolitics of the datasphere. He is also a member of the Institut Universitaire de France and the head of the Observatory of the Russian-Speaking Cyberspace of the French Ministry of Armed Forces. He gives lecture in several universities such as Saint Cyr Coetquidan (French military academy) and has been a lecturer of geopolitics at the Russian State University for Humanities in the early 2010s. His work focuses on the history and the geography of the Russian cyberspace, and on the development of new methods of data investigation (OSINT) for geopolitics.

Susan Morgan

EU DisinfoLab

Susan has over twenty years’ experience working in different sectors and focused on the intersection of technology and society. Now a freelance consultant, she was the first Executive Director of the Global Network Initiative, a Washington DC based multi-stakeholder initiative focused on the responsibilities of technology companies to protect the free expression and privacy rights of their users when receiving government requests around the world. For ten years she worked in the tech industry for BT. And between 2016 and 2019 she worked at the Open Society Foundations leading a global grant-making portfolio focused on the online public sphere.

10:05

Session

Contemporary active responses: Learning from Kyiv

Chaired by Rihards Bambals with Maryna Vorotyntseva (NATO), Marie-Doha Besancenot (NATO) and Olha Danchenkova (Calibrated Agency)

This session will delve into disinformation surrounding the conflict in Ukraine over two and a half years since Russia’s invasion. How are they coping with active disinformation measures on their land, and what have we learnt from their responses?

Marie-Doha Besancenot

NATO

Marie-Doha Besancenot became NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy in September 2023. The Public Diplomacy Division (PDD) works to raise the Alliance’s profile with audiences world-wide and to build support for Alliance operations and policies.

Ms. Besancenot is a graduate of France’s École Normale Supérieure, and has an advanced qualifications in English and a master’s degree in German Studies. She began her career in 2005 as a specialist in American studies at Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, then in 2009 joined the office of the Prime Minister as adviser responsible for speeches and communications.

She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2012 as cultural attaché at the Embassy of France in the United Kingdom.

In 2014, she joined Allianz France as Head of the CEO’s office, before becoming Director of Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility in 2016. Since 2020, she headed the Communications, Brand and Corporate Social Responsibility where she developed the brand awareness and the brand value.

In 2021-2022, she audited classes alongside the 29th year group of the French War College.

In 2021, she was selected as one of the Institut Aspen France’s Young Leaders.

Maryna Vorotyntseva

NATO

Olha Danchenkova

Calibrated Agency

Olha Danchenkova, Co-founder of Calibrated, a Ukraine-born communication agency focused on global PR, strategic communications, anti-crisis comms, and the creation of impactful narratives. Communications strategist with a proven track record of leading successful international media and advocacy campaigns to mobilize support for Ukraine and engage global audiences (working with the Ukrainian public sector, think tanks and international companies). With a robust background in strategic communications and public advocacy, Olha has effectively executed projects that strengthen economic security, enhance resilience, and advance EU integration efforts. Before Calibrated, she co-founded the Ukrainian PR Army NGO and led the Brand, Marketing, and Communications department at EY Ukraine, where she shaped comprehensive PR and marketing strategies and impactful CSR initiatives.

Rihards Bambals

Latvian State Chancellery

Dr. Rihards Bambals is Director of Strategic Communication at the State Chancellery of Latvia (Government Office). He is responsible for coordinated Latvia’s communication with target audiences, based on a whole-of-government approach, and he coordinates efforts accross different formats between governmental and non-governental stake-holders to protect the information integrity and to bolster psychological defences against information influence operations. R.Bambals has developed Latvia’s first doctrine on strategic communication and security of the information space (2023-2027), he is an editor and author of Latvia’s first handbook on how recognize and counter disinformation (2022), and his department has created a platform for citizens to report potential disinformation (www.melnsuzbalta.lv) – one of the first in the world. Rihards has a doctoral degree in political sciences from University of Latvia (2019).

Track 3

9:00

Session

WTF (what’s the fact-checking): navigating challenges and innovations

Chaired by Giovanni Zagni (Pagella Politica) with Theodore Caponis (Siren Analytics), Hendrik Bruns (The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre – EC JRC) & Anna Hollingsworth (AFP)

Often framed as a first-line response, fact-checking is experiencing a fast and evolving growth pace. What are the challenges faced by fact-checkers nowadays? How do they reinvent themselves and work in a cooperative manner? This session will explore how the community embraces new challenges to stay at the forefront of deconstructing narratives.

Theodore Caponis

Siren Analytics

Theodore Caponis is a Founding Partner at Siren Analytics, where he engages in activities related to emerging technologies and their power to shape organisations, disrupt politics, and change the way policies are designed and put into practice.

Hendrik Bruns

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre - EC JRC

Hendrik joined the Joint Research Centre as a behavioural and environmental economist in 2020. His work at the JRC primarily deals with aspects of the European Green Deal, especially individual behaviour relating to climate, energy, and the environment. Hendrik is interested in applying behavioural interventions to motivate pro-environmental behaviour and in the various aspects of misinformation and scepticism, mainly relating to climate change. Currently, he is leading the work on designing EU harmonised waste sorting labels, works on projects related to consumer food waste reduction, and explores several aspects of disinformation.

He graduated from the University of Hamburg as a Doctor of Economics (Dr. rer. pol.) in 2018 and was a fellow of the International Max-Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling.

Anna Hollingsworth

AFP

I’m a fact-checking journalist at the news agency AFP, covering mis- and disinformation in Finland and Sweden. A lot of my work tackles climate-related claims, ranging from historical carbon dioxide measurements to Arctic ice and the environmental effects of wind turbines.

Giovanni Zagni

Pagella Politica

Giovanni Zagni, PhD, is a journalist from Milan, Italy, and the Director of the fact-checking projects Pagella Politica and Facta.news. He is a member of the Executive board of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), serving as the Chair of its Task Force on the European Parliamentary Elections 2024. He is a member of the MSI-INF Committee of Experts on the Integrity of Online Information established in 2022 by the Council of Europe, and took part as an expert in the Monitoring Unit on Disinformation around Covid-19 established by the Italian government in 2020. He is the coauthor of “Bugie al potere. Il fact-checking del governo Meloni” (2023) and one book on the sociology of fact-checking.

10:05

Session

The OSINT session

with Léa Ronzaud (Graphika) and Vincent Gaudio (INPACT)

How can a simple online video help you identify a group of Russian hackers? How can OSINT be applied for financial investigations to hold accountable terrorist groups? In this session, OSINT practitioners will guide you through the latest OSINT techniques and investigations. Beware of the rabbit hole.

LÉa Ronzaud

Graphika

Léa Ronzaud is a senior investigator at Graphika, specializing in the detection and tracking of influence operations and extremist groups. Léa’s work has helped disrupt efforts by extremists in multiple countries to orchestrate real-world harm and exposed the inner workings of nation-state influence operations from Russia, China, and Iran. She holds a Masters degree in geopolitics from the French Institute of Geopolitics.

Vincent Gaudio

INPACT

Vincent Gaudio is a founding member of the NGO INPACT.

Other speakers to be announced

11:05 Coffee break

Track 1

11:45

Panel

Can the DSA achieve its objectives?

Chaired by Diana Wallis (EU DIsinfoLab) with Prabhat Agarwal (European Commission), Eliska Pirkova (AccessNow) & Paolo Cavaliere (University of Edinburgh)

Perhaps no EU regulation was so highly anticipated and widely discussed. But engaging communication creates high expectations. In this session, we’ll talk with regulators and academics on how to manage these expectations, and make sure the Digital Services Act (DSA) can achieve what it was designed for.

Diana Wallis

EU DisinfoLab

Prabhat Agrawal

European Commission

Eliška Pírková

Access Now

Eliška Pírková works as Senior Policy Analyst and the Global freedom of expression lead at Access Now, the international human rights organization that defends and extends digital rights of online users at risk around the world. As a member of the European Access Now team, she leads the work on freedom of expression, content governance and platform accountability.

Paolo Cavaliere

University of Edinburgh

Paolo Cavaliere is a Senior Lecturer (~Associate Professor) in Digital Media and IT Law at the University of Edinburgh Law School, where he teaches courses in media law, freedom of expression and digital human rights at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is currently a co-director of SCRIPT, a law and technology research centre based in the School of Law within the University of Edinburgh, and a research associate at the University of Oxford’s Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy. Further to his academic activity, Paolo is admitted to the Bar in Italy (non-practising) and he regularly provides expertise on telecommunications and media law to a range of NGOs and international organisations, including the Council of Europe and the OSCE among others.

Track 2

11:45

Session

Disinformation as a Weapon: The Delegitimisation of Humanitarian Aid in the Israel-Gaza War

with Emerson Brooking (DFRLab) & Dina Sadek (DFRLab)

This panel will explore the tactics and impact of disinformation and influence operations about humanitarian organisations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With a particular focus on disinformation against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the panel will examine the real-life impact of influence operations targeting voters and lawmakers and polluting the information landscape.

Emerson Brooking

DFRLab

Emerson T. Brooking is Director of Strategy and Resident Senior Fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council and is a widely cited expert in the fields of information conflict, disinformation, and technology policy. From 2022 to 2023, he took leave from the DFRLab to serve as Cyber Policy Advisor within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, where he was an author of the 2023 DoD Cyber Strategy. Brooking is the coauthor of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) and has published work in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Atlantic, among others. He holds a BA in Political Science and Classical Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dina Sadek

DFRLab

Track 3

11:45

Session

Mission NOT accomplished: unintended fallbacks from investigations

with Jack Brewster (NewsGuard) & Victoire Rio (What To Fix), chaired by Maria Giovanna Sessa (EU DisinfoLab)

What has the community-fighting disinformation learned from past mistakes? What are the unintended consequences of fighting disinformation? What happens when defenders mislead, and what can we do next with what we learned?

Jack BrewsteR

NewsGuard

Jack Brewster is an editor managing NewsGuard’s investigative reports on misinformation and emerging technologies. On the side, he owns and manages a startup, Newsreel, whose mission is to fight news avoidance among young people.

Victoire Rio

What To Fix

Victoire Rio is a global tech accountability practitioner and advocate and a leading expert on social media monetization and its impact on information integrity.

She is the founder and executive director of WHAT TO FIX, a non-profit working to move the tech accountability conversation towards more actionable diagnosis and globally-sound solutions.

Prior to founding WHAT TO FIX, Victoire led tech accountability efforts out of Myanmar, spearheading Myanmar civil society’s engagement with tech companies from 2016-2023, as the country went though a genocide, a civil war, a pandemic, an election, a military coup and a revolution. Alongside her work in Myanmar, she helped convene the Next Billion Network, a community of practice bringing together frontline actors from a range of high risk contexts.

She’s looked extensively at the role and abuse of social media in crisis and authoritarian contexts and has pioneered a range of investigation, documentation, risk mitigation and advocacy strategies that have fueled systemic change to platforms’ products, policies, enforcement and global engagement.

Victoire holds a MA in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London. Originally from France, she has lived and worked in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Haiti, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UK, and the US.

Maria Giovanna Sessa

EU DisinfoLab

Maria Giovanna Sessa is the Research Manager at EU DisinfoLab. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and has previously worked for research foundations, think tanks, and as a university teaching assistant. Her research interests focus on the use of disinformation in political communication, gender-based attacks, and international crises, including FIMI. Lately, she has been working around DSA enforcement, linking research and policy implementation.

12:30 Lunch break

A special networking lunch is open for all EU-funded projects. This will be an ideal occasion to meet peers involved in innovative projects around AI, FIMI, and other current topics in the disinformation sphere, and to start developing new collaborations.

The attendance at the lunch is included in the #Disinfo2024 conference fee, but a separate registration is required. If you’re interested in participating, please send us an email to conference@disinfo.eu, with the subject line ‘Project networking lunch’, and include your name, organisation, and the project you represent. (And don’t forget to register for the conference here!)

Starting at 13:00 we will be holding two sessions about Latvian resilience on disinformation with Rihards Bambals (State Chancellery of Latvia) and Gunta Sloga (Baltic Center for Media Excellenne). The session will be chaired by Pekka Kallioniemi (Vatnik Soup)

Track 1

13:45

Session

Can advertising cash stop funding misinformation trash?

with Claire Atkin (Check My Ads), Victoire Rio (What To Fix), & Domen Savič (Citizen D)

Is the online adtech industry inherently fraudulent? This question arises because the ad tech industry appears to have failed to act on rampant fraud and reputational damage to brands for years and publishers’ efforts to clean up the sector have fallen flat. In this session, we’ll examine why the money spent on advertising is ending up in disinformers pockets,  making adtech cash a driver of online disinformation.

Claire Atkin

Check My Ads

Claire Atkin is co-founder and CEO of Check My Ads, the adtech industry’s first watchdog. As a leading brand safety advocate, she is a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 brands, government officials, journalists and industry leaders. Her work to build new sustainable standards in digital advertising while dismantling the ad-funded disinformation economy has been recognized in New York Magazine, New York Times, The Guardian, WIRED, El Pais, and more. As a brand safety advocate, she holds the surveillance adtech industry accountable for abuses against advertisers and consumers in Check My Ads’s popular newsletter. She has received Adweek’s Young Innovators Award, and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Media Agency. Her work intersects the economics of digital marketing, media, and disinformation to expose where how resources .

Victoire Rio

What To Fix

Victoire Rio is a global tech accountability practitioner and advocate and a leading expert on social media monetization and its impact on information integrity.

She is the founder and executive director of WHAT TO FIX, a non-profit working to move the tech accountability conversation towards more actionable diagnosis and globally-sound solutions.

Prior to founding WHAT TO FIX, Victoire led tech accountability efforts out of Myanmar, spearheading Myanmar civil society’s engagement with tech companies from 2016-2023, as the country went though a genocide, a civil war, a pandemic, an election, a military coup and a revolution. Alongside her work in Myanmar, she helped convene the Next Billion Network, a community of practice bringing together frontline actors from a range of high risk contexts.

She’s looked extensively at the role and abuse of social media in crisis and authoritarian contexts and has pioneered a range of investigation, documentation, risk mitigation and advocacy strategies that have fueled systemic change to platforms’ products, policies, enforcement and global engagement.

Victoire holds a MA in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London. Originally from France, she has lived and worked in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Haiti, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UK, and the US.

Domen Savič

Citizen D

Domen is the Director of digital rights at NGO Citizen D and a freelance journalist. He is exploring the interconnected world of human rights and digital technologies.

Track 2

13:45

Panel

Challenges faced by the Global Majority in building resilience against disinformation

Chaired by Viktors Makarovs (Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) with Nighat Dad (Digital Rights Foundation), Helen Vesperini (Balobaki Check), & Lucina Di Meco (#ShePersisted)

What are the main challenges faced by the counter-disinformation community outside Europe? This session will focus on building resilience and capacity outside the global North. Hostile environment, skill gap, talent retention – the speakers in this session will share their struggle and their solutions to empower a diverse community.

Nighat Dad

Digital Rights Foundation

Nighat Dad is a leading advocate for digital rights. She is the founder and executive director of the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), an organization dedicated to promote digital freedoms. Nighat serves as a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on AI, and is also a member of Independent Oversight Board, playing a crucial role in overseeing and guiding content moderation practices to ensure fairness and accountability on the Meta’s platform. Recognized for her impactful work, Nighat has received numerous accolades, including being recognised as one of Time magazine’s Next Generation Leaders, a TED fellow and Young Global Leader of WEF. Her expertise is frequently sought by international organizations, reflecting her significant contributions to advancing digital rights and protecting online freedoms globally.

Helen Vesperini

Balobaki Check

I am the Editorial and Strategy Advisor at Balobaki Check, the organization founded by Ange Kasongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I am relatively new to the fact-checking community, after a long career in journalism followed by a stint in communications for development. I am deeply attached to the DRC, but I admit freely that it is a challenging environment in which to work.

Lucina Di Meco

#ShePersisted

Lucina Di Meco is a women’s rights advocate, recognized by Apolitical as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy . She is the co-founder of #ShePersisted, a global initiative dedicated to addressing gendered disinformation through research, support to women leaders and advocacy for stronger digital platform standards. Lucina is the author of multiple studies focusing on the impact of gendered disinformation on democracy and election integrity, including “Monetizing Misogyny: Gendered Disinformation and the Undermining of Women’s Rights and Democracy Globally.” Lucina’s work has been featured on some of the world’s most authoritative outlets, including The Guardian, The New York Times, the BBC, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, El Pais, Folha de Sao Paulo, Politico, Brookings, and The Council of Foreign Relations, among others. Throughout her 20+ years career in international development, Lucina has worked with a wide range of international organizations and nonprofits, including UNDP, UN Women, Vital Voices, The Wilson Center, International IDEA, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and currently also serves as Vice President for Gender Equality for Room to Read.

Viktors Makarovs

Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Viktors Makarovs is the first envoy on digital affairs to be appointed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia. His current focus is on information integrity and security and impact of AI. Since 2014, he has led the Ministry’s work on disinformation, focusing on EU policies and international cooperation on the issue. Before joining the Ministry in 2011, Viktors acquired a background in the Latvian NGO think-tanking community where his two main interests were Latvian political culture and Russia’s foreign and domestic policy. He holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Track 3

13:45

Keynote

Cultural Learnings of Europe for Make Benefit Glorious NGO tackling disinformation – Pre-subsequent session

with Alexandre Alaphilippe & Gary Machado (EU DisinfoLab)

In 2017, two idealistic thirty-somethings set out to tackle disinformation by creating an NGO. Fast forward a few years, several kilograms, and countless grey hairs later, they’re here to share their rollercoaster journey. Join us for a session filled with humour and thought-provoking moments as they recount the challenges, and even detrimental behaviours by the most unexpected actors that tested their resolve to keep the organisation alive in 2024.

Alexandre Alaphilippe

EU DisinfoLab

Alexandre Alaphilippe is the Executive director and co-founder of the EU DisinfoLab. Since 2017, he has coordinated work on some of the organisation’s largest investigations into Information Operations linked to Russia, India and China. In 2022, he led the exposure of Doppelganger, which has been labeled as one of the largest information operation from Russia in the past years. He is a member of a number of working groups in Brussels and Washington DC linked to platform regulation, transatlantic relations, and hybrid threats, where he emphasises the role of civil society in maintaining democratic values. He has published papers for the Brookings Institution and his work has been featured on CNN, BBC, Le Monde and Politico.

Gary Machado

EU DisinfoLab

14:45 Coffee Break

Plenary

15:25

Panel

Old International Institutions, Innovative New Thinking?

Chaired by Alicia Wanless (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) with Melissa Fleming (United Nations)

While all eyes are on European regulation or the future of the United States, other anti-disinformation efforts are being designed at the supranational level. Can solutions be found to counter disinformation and improve the information ecosystem at the international level? In this section, we’ll explore the possibilities and limits of this approach.

Melissa Fleming

United Nations

Melissa Fleming was appointed UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications in September 2019.

She leads the UN’s Department of Global Communications, which informs global audiences about the state of the world and engages them to build support for the work and goals of the United Nations.

In this role, Ms. Fleming oversees the Department’s strategic and crisis communications operations, including its multilingual news and digital media services, public outreach programmes, and global campaigns.

Under her leadership, the UN Department of Global Communications engages in far-reaching efforts to address mis- and disinformation, and hate speech and also to promote free and independent media. She led the development of the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity, a blueprint for healthy information ecosystems.

Previously, Ms. Fleming served 10 years at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as Spokesperson for the High Commissioner and Head of Global Communications. Prior to that, she was the Spokesperson and Head of Media and Outreach at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). She earlier headed Press and Public Information at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and before that, served as Public Affairs Specialist at Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty. She also worked as a journalist.

Ms. Fleming is a TED speaker, the author of the book, A Hope More Powerful than the Sea, and the host of the award-winning UN podcast, Awake at Night. She has published widely on strategic communications and is a frequent public speaker at universities and conferences.

She holds a Master of Science in Journalism from the College of Communication, Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies from Oberlin College.

Alicia Wanless

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Dr. Alicia Wanless is the Director of the Information Environment Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which aims to foster evidence-based policymaking for the information environment. The initiative builds on the work of the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations, which she also led. Alicia has also created a multi-stakeholder network in partnership with the G7 Rapid Response Network to support information integrity efforts in Ukraine. Alicia was a technical advisor to Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder and is a founding member of its Global Cybersecurity Group. She is also an expert advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety. At King’s College London in War Studies, she completed her PhD, combining strategic theory and ecology in a new approach to understanding conflict within the information environment.

16:15

KEYNOTE TO BE ANNOUNCED

16:45

Closing session

With the support of:

Main sponsors:

Lunch sponsors:

Break sponsors:

Be part of #Disinfo2024 – partner with us as a sponsor for our annual conference!

Scroll down and get in touch via the contact form or by email conference[at]disinfo.eu.

Back to #Disinfo2024 front page