The Global Fact 10 global verification summit, organized by the International Verification Network (IFCN), has brought together 500 experts from 75 countries in Seoul. EFE
Journalists, researchers and representatives of technology companies from 75 countries participate in a world summit that seeks to deal with disinformation, especially on social networks.
SEOUL. The search for economic stability of verification organizations and the demand for a greater responsibility to social networks in the face of misinformationused as a “weapon” by countries like Russia, have focused this week on world summit of this specialtyheld in Seoul.
In its tenth edition, the Global Fact, organized by the International Verification Network (IFCN), has brought together in the Korean capital 500 journalists, academic researchers and representatives of large technology companies from 75 countries and has had an esteemed audience of other 700 professionals by videoconference.
For three days, the verification community and platforms such as Meta, TikTok or YouTube have discussed the Financing channels for journalistic organizations dedicated to combating falsehoods and manipulation.
Summit participants have also demanded greater responsibility to social networks, with special prominence for the criticism of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s corporate policies just as they have analyzed the serious consequences of disinformation in countries like Russia, Brazil or the Philippines.
Propaganda as a ‘springboard’ for war
The war in Ukraine has once again been present in this edition of Global Fact in which the ambassador of this country in South Korea, Dmytro Ponomarenko, had a brief intervention.
The diplomat asked “Do not underestimate the importance of truth» and underlined «the crucial role of the propaganda machine Russian when feeding the public aggression and hatred“, which prepared, as he added, “an informative springboard for the war through the use of false or distorted narratives«.
The ambassador spoke in this way after a session led by the Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro, who for years has investigated the activity of the calls “troll farms» russian, that They concentrate specialists in disseminating propaganda and misinformation on social networks.
Aro, who recalled that for Moscow this kind of activity is a “weapon” in what he sees as a war with the Westexposed his theory that the Russian embassies participate in this network of lies.
«They employ intelligence office officials who monitor the spaces for debate and information in the target countries and then organize trolling operations on debates they really want to influence“, he pointed out.
The journalist, who is the target of harassment and death threats, was moved to receive an ovation from the public gathered in the main auditorium of the summit.
Elon Musk and the lack of a security policy on Twitter
Both Aro herself and other Global Fact speakers stated that social media had done little or nothing to prevent the spread of manipulative posts.
More explicit were the accusations against Elon Musk by him former director of Transparency and Security of Twitter Yoel Roth, who described the company’s current program in that area as “non-existent.”
Musk had already been accused by the presenter of the session, the executive director of the American verifier PolitiFact, Aaron Sharockman, of having “actively” spread disinformation to “attack” many of the organizations present in the auditorium.
Roth also explained his role in the Cancellation of former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account and the I veto the dissemination of a New York Post article critical of then presidential candidate Joe Biden, based on data taken from a computer which supposedly belonged to his son Hunter.
Roth, who was summoned to testify before a committee of the House of Representatives for that decision, recalled that Twitter prevented the circulation of that content before the suspicion that its origin was a malicious hacking and leaking operation, despite the fact that he recommended not taking that measure due to lack of evidence. EFE