Wednesday 9 October 2024, 10.30am-12noon (BST)
Although we are fed an overwhelming diet of information, we are not more knowledgeable for it.
In The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), Hannah Arendt wrote: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
More than 70 years on, Arendt’s observation remains pertinent, as we saw all too graphically with this summer’s riots.
Our default position is to credit ‘foreign interference’ for any piece of disinformation, but ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation’ are just as much home-grown. They are the consequence of an individual’s willingness to embrace conspiracies that fit an existing worldview.
Our esteemed panel of experts explored technology’s influence on prejudice, as social media algorithms too often reinforce our biases and discriminations. And does this mean that we all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religious belief, wealth, social background, or education, are susceptible to the ‘right’ conspiracy?
We explored what this all means for a future in which machines answer more and more of our questions, and the steps we as a society can take to counter credulity and encourage healthy scepticism.
Guest chaired by
Rob Black (info), Independent Cybersecurity Professional
Facilitated by
Lisa Forte (info), Partner, Red Goat Cyber Security
Panellists
Eliot Higgins (info), Investigative Journalist, and Founder and Creative Director, Bellingcat
Parven Kaur (info), Founder, Kids N Clicks
Professor Paul Baines (info), Professor of Political Marketing, University of Leicester School of Business
Tarquin Folliss OBE (info), Vice Chairman, The SASIG
