Manipulating elections in cyberspace: Are democracies in danger?

Increasingly, reports warn that state-sponsored actors use cyberspace and social media in particular to spread fake news/disinformation in order to sow distrust and create discord and polarized opinions among people on political issues during democratic elections. Adding to this, social media platforms' algorithms "add salt to the wound" by feeding their users posts, which are aligned with their opinion in order to increase their screen time. Moreover, these same disinformation campaigns are often used to conduct cyber attacks.

How serious and how massive is the problem? What are its implications? And what can/should be done about it? Can malicious actors be held accountable?

During this conference, we will discuss not only the technological aspects of this phenomenon, but also the regulatory role executive and legislative branches of governments should play. Societal, economical and geopolitical implications will also be debated. More precisely, we will try to answer the following questions:
1. How massive is the phenomenon?
2. How does voter manipulation work technically? Can it be fixed by technology?
3. Who gains from it and for which motives? Commercial? Political? Geo-political? Other?
4. What role should platform policies and governance play?
5. How to deal with the problem?

The event will be streamed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PVbwfO-qri4


AGENDA

Introduction by Prof. Matthias Finger

PART 1: TALKS

Manipulating algorithms to influence people
By Steve El-Sharawy, Head of Insights at EzyInsights

Disinformation and election interference in Kyrgyzstan
By Dr. Rebekah Overdorf, Postdoctoral Research Associate, EPFL

Deepfakes and its impact on Democracy
By Ashish Jaiman, Director Of Technology Operations, Microsoft

Current governance situation
By Prof. Michael Kende, The Graduate Institute Geneva

From Infodemic to cyberattacks : how to close the accountability gap
By Stéphane Duguin, CEO, CyberPeace Institute

Recommendations from the Kofi Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age
By Declan O’Brian, Programme Coordinator, Kofi Annan Foundation

PART 2: PANEL DISCUSSION WITH Q&A