(Un)Democracy and Disinformation - How Autocrats Use the ”Infodemic”

Everyone seems to agree that disinformation poses significant challenges for democratic regimes due to the difficulty in building consensus within a confusing media landscape. However, while the focus is on democracies, the "alternative systems", either so-called illiberal democracies or straight-up dictatorships, escape our focus. In these cases, it seems the spread of disinformation actually provides opportunities from promoting anti-democratic narratives to implementing new measures that further entrench the "ruler" into the realms of power. More than that, in order to cover up their lack of proper management during this crisis, they push alternate narratives in democratic countries meant to confuse and manipulate people.

The discussion will compare how different types of regimes react in this period to the “infodemic” and what strategies these regimes have, how they are affecting human rights, and which countries are using the pandemic as a pretext to take illiberal measures.

Moderator:

Diana Filimon │Alba Iulia, Romania
Civic activist, team builder by default, PR lady, event organiser and project manager for most of her life, trainer and active fighter against civic apathy, illiberal tendencies and fake news. President and founder of Forum Apulum, a grassroots civic NGO focused on engaging the younger generations in improving the democratic system and community leader of DCN Romania. Diana has published opinion articles in magazines and was named among the 100 people for the future Romania, by the publication DoR.

Speakers:
Sandor Lederer│Budapest, Hungary
Franak Viacorka│ Minsk, Belarus

This event is co-organized by the Digital Communication Network SouthEast Europe Hub (DCN SEE) and World Learning and is part of DCNSEE’s Ideas in Action – Digital Engagement, a series of virtual events launched in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

Registration here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvcuCgpzIsGdMU7xfTrhUVR5N24823pQ3e