The Department of European and Comparative Law, Faculty of Laws and Malta European Law Association (AMSDE) are organising a public lecture entitled 'A principle-based response to the #FakeNews crisis'.
The public lecture will be held on Thursday 21 February at 18:30 at the University of Malta Valletta Campus.
Speaker
Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor at the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University
Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor at the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University
The challenges of deceptive content (“AstroTurfing”, fake news, deep fakes, state-sponsored propaganda, etc.) will only become greater with advances in technology. Unfortunately, most of the proposals for tackling the scourge of fake news have been fragmented and compartmentalized, with stakeholders making arguments that can be categorized as either “protectionist” (media organizations calling for diverted digital advertising funds to support news outlets); “Slow” (increasing digital literacy through educational programs); and “tweaking the status quo” (encouraging improved self-regulation of the commercial advertising eco-system). These approaches are insufficient to quell the problem of fake news and require an alternative, principled approach. This presentation will outline what this approach might indeed look like with focus on interagency cooperation and ‘repowering’ existing regulators within human rights frameworks in order to disrupt economic incentives in order to regulate political coercion.
For further details contact Dr Mireille M. Caruana.
