Marie Santini participates in the panel “Building Transnational Solidarities in the Space of Disinformation and Democracy” | Photo: Reproduction
Between the 27th and 28th of November, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), in partnership with GloTech Lab (University of Massachusetts) and the Tide Setubal Foundation, held the workshop “Disinformation and Elections in Global Majority ” at which the director of the Internet and Social Network Studies Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NetLab UFRJ), Rose Marie Santini, was a speaker.
For two days, the workshop program brought together researchers, journalists and civil society leaders from more than seven countries to discuss issues regarding the fight for pro-democracy and against global disinformation.
Globally, public and academic discussions about influence operations and democracy are still consentrated in the countries of the Global North. On the other hand, countries in the Global South receive less attention and resources from the world's leading technology and communications companies when dealing with safeguarding electoral integrity in their regions.
On the debate pannel with professor Marie Santini (NetLabUFRJ) was Sahana Udupa (LMU-Munich), Ethan Zuckerman (UMass Amherst), Victoire Rio (What to Fix / MTAN) and Alexandra Pardal (Digital Action). They discussed the need to expand transnational dialogues about ‘Big Techs’ and reduce the dominance of points of view focused on the Global North. Furthermore, Santini added important points about regulation and power dynamics on platforms.
The workshop, which took place on the Gávea campus, was organized by professors Marcelo Alves dos Santos Junior, Caroline Pecoraro (PUC-Rio), and Jonathan Corpus Ong and Jose Mari Lanuza (both from the University of Massachusetts).