June 30 – 09.00 am – Luiss University – The Dome – Viale Romania 32, Rome
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Information is a powerful weapon. In many modern conflicts and situations of civilian crisis, digital technologies have made the truth an easy target as never before. Disinformation and propaganda has always been tools of warfare, as the various contenders try to win the hearts and minds of the people as well as the battles. However, today with social media, the Internet, and smartphones, turning information into weapons has become easier and faster than ever before, with unprecedented reach. The disinformation that spreads online and offline generates a complex information environment which makes it difficult to distinguish truth from lies.
The impact of disinformation on those living in different countries of the world is “significant and accentuates local security crises in relation to a plethora of topics, further weakening the work of those involved in promoting peace and social security”. In order to rebuild trust in information and institutions, both nationally and internationally, it is necessary to provide quality information while combating misinformation. To this end, it is necessary to create an extensive coalition, which operates throughout the entire social fabric and at every level of its composition, globally operative. Disinformation, at the global, regional, and local levels, causes conflicts, harms citizens, and misleads decision-making processes. Information disorder results in societal disorder, and the rise of disinformation and manipulation through alternative facts results in a rise of different tensions worldwide and vice versa. Information tumult is creating global political and economic disorder as well. Consequently, all involved actors and nations should be included in strategies for preventing and combating these threats.
The core challenge is to frame a sustainable balance between freedom of information, national and social security within the domain of information, law, and policy-making. If truth is indispensable for effective decision-making, fact-based policies are essential for human progress. The Italian Digital Media Observatory (IDMO), the Italian hub of the European network against disinformation, EDMO (European Digital Media Observatory), coordinated by the Luiss Data Lab research center in collaboration with Luiss Master in Multimedia Journalism and Communication, is organizing the “Global Information War: An International Forum“, an event that will recount the impact of disinformation on our lives starting from the pandemic crisis and the war in Ukraine and the strategies to curb the phenomenon through the experience of different national approaches. The event aims to acquaint the public with the activities carried out on the national level by several countries and on the Italian level by the Observatory, which is aimed at spreading greater awareness among the public about disinformation, through the dissemination of good practices related to the world of fact-checking and e-literacy. During the course of the event, several speakers will be hosted, which will touch on the most topical issues concerning the information ecosystem in their country of origin, with particular regard to the use of digital media, also in the light of the most recent developments in the global scenario.
