Looking Ahead to 2024: Mitigating Election Mis- and Disinformation

Anya Schiffrin is the director of the media and technology specialization  at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Shutterstock On Monday, April 17th, I moderated a discussion on efforts to mitigate election mis- and disinformation in the runup to 2024, a year that will see key elections in dozens of countries, including the US, Mexico, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Ukraine. Expert panelists included: Laura Zommer, the General Director of Chequeado and Cofounder of Factchequeado;  Sarah Lister, Head of Governance in the Bureau of Policy and Programme Support, United Nations Development Programme; and  Laleh Ispahani, Co-Director of Open Society Foundation’s U.S. Program (& E.D. in July).  What follows are highlights from the panel discussion.  Anya Schiffrin:  In 2024 there will be elections all over the world. What are you seeing? Laura Zommer:   I study election mis- and disinformation targeting Latino communities. There are some narratives that are in English and then translated to Spanish, but we also see some intended to create fear or anger in the Latino communities and affect which party they vote for. One example is the narrative related to inflation. An inflation rate of 9% is a lot for many Americans, but for people coming from Venezuela, who remember an inflation rate of 500% a year, talking about inflation makes them feel much more uncomfortable and concerned about their present and the future. Another narrative that is targeted and micro-targeted to Latinos groups (through videos, text, graphics, memes) present the idea that Biden is not a…Looking Ahead to 2024: Mitigating Election Mis- and Disinformation