disinformation

How is the rampant spread of mis/disinformation contributing to that breakdown of trust? What is the role of online platforms in combating it? What about individual users?

Two experts in the field of cognitive science, Dr. Danielle Polage of Central Washington University and researcher Dr. Babak Hemmatian, bring an understanding to how the brain responds to false information online. Dr. Polage studies the impacts of false information in digital environments, and the effects that exposure to repeated lying can have on an individual’s belief patterns. Dr. Babak Hemmatian researches how social narratives form and are negotiated using computational methods and behavioral experiments.

John Poulos - the President and CEO of a leading industry supplier of US election technology, Dominion Voting - joins Commission Co-chair Chris Krebs, founding director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to discuss the effects on his company of the Big Lie that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen, and the active role business executives must play in preventing disinformation from spreading across their own companies to maintain trust in their brands.

Jay Rosen, a long-time professor of journalism at New York University and one of the great thinkers on the changing nature of journalism in the digital age, speaks with Aspen Digital's Executive Director, Vivian Schiller, on the challenges and opportunities around disinformation within the news industry.

Alan Miller, CEO and founder of the News Literacy Project, examines the role of news literacy and education as an effective countermeasure to the spread of mis- and disinformation with Aspen Digital Executive Director Vivian Schiller.

Amy Webb, founder and CEO of the Future Today Institute, speaks with Aspen Digital Executive Director Vivian Schiller on future disinformation threats, what to anticipate, and effective measures society can take today.

Brandi Collins-Dexter, a senior fellow at Color Of Change, discusses the book she is writing about the history and trajectory of Black political, economic and social power as it relates to the loss of offline Black-owned and controlled spaces.

Dr. Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist and professor of government at Dartmouth College, speaks with Commission on Information Disorder Project Director Ryan Merkley about the effectiveness of misinformation countermeasures on the retention of misperceptions, the US elections, platforms and the YouTube algorithm, and more.

Bruce Mehlman, founder of the bipartisan government relations firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, speaks on the role technology plays in a polarized political landscape with Garrett Graff, the director for cyber initiatives for Aspen Digital.