Disinfo Hacks and Security,Navigating the shifting Landscape

Participants:Christos Smilianis, Public Affairs Officer and training manager in the Greek army.Katerina Beli, Political Communication StrategistModerator: Aurra Kawanzaruwa, Manager of DCN AFRICA Outstanding quotes:Christos :“Communication and journalism are two very important aspects on how to safeguard our societies and communities against state actors and non-state actors who want to harm them.” “Disinformation is not something new. What changed is the scale of it because of the rise of the digital media of actors that want to take advantage of vulnerable points of our society.”“Not all of our people are equally prepared to face disinformation. Education is very important. Rather than trying to heal the damage of misinformation, we must try to prevent it. And one of the most powerful tools is education.”“Speed is important. Responding fast and informing people of the dangerous situations they might be facing, in order to safeguard people from disinformation.”“People feel excluded and this is the trojan horse that gives roots to disinformation to grow in society.”“Deep fakes are not taking over the agenda right now. This type of misinformation is not as common as we were expecting.”“Nowadays we know in fact that people lack the time and motivation to fact-check the information that they get. In the future, we will have more tools like Chat-GTP and more AI platforms that will help people fact-check the information that they are receiving. Although the rise of misinformation campaigns will keep rising.”Katerina:“You create something when you need it. When there was a valid need to create answers against disinformation around covid, we create solutions in a crisis mode, a lot faster and more efficiently.” DisinfoHacks Project is an innovative training program that brings together partners expertise, engaging an ecosystem of communication and media stakeholders, startup innovators and influencers in identifying, assessing, and combating disinformation." Organized by DCN Global, #ADandPRLAB, YET, funded by U.S. Department of State and U.S. Mission in Greece, supported by Found.ation and SocialInnov.