At the beginning of 2023, my team and I kicked off our international research into good practices for countering disinformation online. This research was enriched by regional field engagements, consisting of workshops and bilateral discussions with decision-makers, experts, and relevant stakeholders, who we brought together in one comparatively central location in each region. The goal of these field trips was to create a space for exchange amongst experts and mutual learning of each other’s contexts to jointly explore the landscape of counter-disinformation initiatives, pro-democracy mobilisations efforts, and highlight particularly promising examples and good practices. In addition, networking with and among the respective actors aims to foster strong collaborations, alliances, and knowledge transfer, including assessing ideas for their potential to successfully strengthen counter-disinformation efforts in Europe and Germany.

We were lucky to win fantastic partners in each of our 5 target regions: CIPESA (Uganda), Digital Asia Hub (Hongkong), Associacion de Derechos Civiles (ADC, Argentina), the Bertelsmann Foundation North America (BFNA, USA), and Globsec (Slovakia). The results of our research engagements can now be found on Upgrade Democracy.

In addition to our field reports, I also tried to capture some of the more pressing insights from each region in a couple of blog posts, such as one on AI during the Argentinian elections and its potential implications for the many elections happening throughout 2024: https://upgradedemocracy.de/ki-und-wahlen-zwischen-meme-kultur-und-politischer-werbung/

As well as one on the role of regulation and the potential repercussions of EU legislation in less demcratically organised countries: https://upgradedemocracy.de/en/social-media-regulation-can-be-weaponised-citizen-participation-is-key/