« Disinformation v. Democracy: Navigating an Age of Uncertainty »

SUMMER SCHOOL
Law & DIGITAL SOCIETY

Description 📜

Briedging real-world experience and academic knowledge from a multidisciplinary perspective, this session—as a spinoff of a collaborative project between France and Estonia—will explore the growing risks posed by disinformation and the tools developed to counter it through concrete case studies.

Drawing from Estonia’s experience in combating malicious interference, the discussion will address large-scale disinformation campaigns that widely spread fake news across social networks and the public sphere. In the face of these hybrid threats, which destabilize peace and democracy, raising awareness about effective countermeasures is more critical than ever.

Speakers 🗣

Mari Luist works as a diplomat at Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2015. Her first postings took her to Geneva, where she mainly covered trade and development issues both at the WTO and the UN. Mari currently works at the Estonian Embassy in Paris as a political counsellor, where she is in charge of strategic affairs, defense and EU matters. Mari graduated from Sciences Po Paris in 2012 with a Masters in European Affairs. During her studies she has spent shorter and longer periods of time in the US (Georgetown University TFAS Summer program), Germany (Humbold University in Berlin) and France (Exchange program in Lyon). After graduation she spent a few years in Brussels, working at a consultancy and interning at the European Parliament.

Stefano Braghiroli is Associate Professor of European Studies at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu. He currently serves as director of the Master’s programme in “European Studies” offered by the same institute. He received his PhD in Comparative and European Politics from the University of Siena (Italy) in 2010. 
His main research interests include party politics in the European Parliament, EU enlargement and neighbourhood policy, and party-based populism and euroscepticism, and politics of disinformation, and polarization. 
His most recent publications include articles in New Perspectives, European Politics and Society, Contemporary Italian Politics, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Journal of Baltic Studies, Journal of Regional Security, and East European Politics as well as various book chapters.

Chair: Felix-Christopher von Nostitz  is an associate professor of political science and the head of the master’s in digital politics and governance at ESPOL. His current research interests are on political participation, parties, and elections in the digital age. He is part of the steering committee of the Digital Parties Research Network. He was and is involved in various research projects on the impact of digital technology on politics and society such as the H2020 projects ActEU, RECONNECT, PEOPLE2022, and EU‐People2024.

Background reading 📚

“The phenomenon [of disinformation] poses particular risks in complex, diverse, liberal-democratic societies. Such societies, characterized by pluralism, are especially vulnerable to foreign interference and domestic populists who exploit openness for their own ends. At the same time, efforts to combat disinformation must remain grounded in the rule of law and uphold the freedom of information – core values of these open societies. ”