Ouch, super problematic comment by Stephane Duguin, ex #Europol now leading the CyberPeace Institute, arguing that to take down online speech that's classified as #disinformation they don't need to and cannot know if that content actually has had a harmful effect; as long as it's been published by an organisation labeled as "terrorist org", that's fine.

Think #PalestineAction, #Antifascists, and maybe #ClimateJustice orgs like @AufstandLastGen in the future... 😤

3. There was a strong focus at #Disinfo2025 on foreign actors / #FIMI from #Russia, not so much on #disinfo attacks from internal actors, the far right, #Trump, or #BigTech billionaires.

4. There was hardly any discussion of the role of #BigTech social media's business models, algorithmic #amplification, and lack of due diligence in the spread of #disinformation. One ex-US #Army guy claimed "platforms are not the problem," information "is moving on its own." Does it though, does it? 🤦

Day 1 of the #Disinfo2025 conference is over, so let me share some takeaways. As a #DigitalRights advocate I'm surprised about how large the gap between the #disinformation and digital rights communities seems to be:

1. The framing of conversations that I witnessed here were highly militarised, lots of talk about "the battlefield", the enemy, and various forms of (hybrid) #warfare.

2. There's was a strong "Us V Them" narrative across the conference, mostly as in the West V #Russia and #China.

Aaah finally a #Disinfo2025 panel that focuses on #FreeExpression and other human rights in the context of the work against #disinformation.

The brilliant @epirkova pushes back against the instrumentalisation of #FreeSpeech and the EU's #DSA to fuel far-right anti-democratic narratives. And she rightly calls out the incredible amount of #securitisation of the #disinfo debate. 👏

This #Disinfo2025 afternoon was brightened by a brilliant talk by #ExxonMobil #whistleblower Lindsay Gulden about how the #fossilfuel lobby has lied to the public for decades about the #ClimateCrisis and which techniques the industry uses today to spread #disinformation and actively mislead our thinking about it.

If you haven't heard Lindsay speak yet, there are talks online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QonzyNL4XKs

So for now I'm listening to what sounds like a sales pitch from a #defence tech firm called #gerulata that claims they have developed an #AI model that can "predict" if certain pieces of online content will be used for a #disinformation campaign plus do all kinds of awesome magic. 🧐

#disinfo2025 #fimi

#Disinfo2025 is a very new environment for me despite having worked on online platform regulation for over 6 years.

The conference is sponsored by #Tiktok among others, an important spreader of #disinformation, and panel speakers include people from #defence tech firms and #AI companies... Let's see what this does to the conference content.