Author: Benjamin Pelling

Recently, REDACT members from seven European countries travelled to Tallinn for a project workshop on current issues and next steps. Greeted by sunny Autumn weather in the beautiful Viimsi area northeast of Tallinn, we convened for two intensive days during which we, among other things, discussed our upcoming book project, social media strategy, and meetings in Croatia next year. After the workshop, several members of REDACT stayed in Tallinn and gave talks at the “Populism, Conspiracy Theories and the War against Ukraine” conference organized by the European Research Council-funded project PACT (“Populism and Conspiracy Theory”). The project, led by German PI Michael Butter, is gradually coming to an end, and has recently produced an edited volume on populism and conspiracy theory, which is available through open-access.

UK postdoc Ben Pelling attended the EDMO Annual Conference (25^th and 26^th May 2023) which convened policymakers, academics, regulators and journalists to discuss challenges around online disinformation and present some of the work being done to counter it.

Conference sessions and discussions on the current state of disinformation covered topics such as: AI and disinformation; Transnational responses; And disinformation and open-source intelligence. There were also presentations from academics, journalists and those working to tackle disinformation, covering: Research on disinformation and data access; Identifying Media Literacy interventions that really work; And sustainable models for independent fact-checking.

The Conference was also used as an opportunity to launch the new ‘EDMO Working Group for the Creation of an Independent Intermediary Body to Support Research on Digital Platforms’. The press release for this launch can be seen here.