Webinar_ #16-2020 Digital Wildfires in a Connected World

Topic - Digital Wildfires in a Connected World

Synopsis - Fact check of a tweet by US President Trump creates friction between Twitter and White House; Vietnam imposes a fine on its citizens who propagate false news on the social media; Mauritius arrests a person for posting harmful content on the social media… these and more related news are recent headlines. All these point to digital wildfires, which is broadly defined as ‘social media events in which provocative content spreads rapidly and broadly and causes harm.’
A Global Risk Report by World Economic Forum warns how hyper-connectivity can create “digital wildfires” that can have devastating consequences. The key question that deserves attention is whether these digital wildfires necessitate urgent creation and adoption of a new governance structure for social media. Alongside this, another key question to be addressed is whether such a governance structure will result in impairment of freedom of speech.
This presentation will consider the current state of digital wildfires supported by case studies and examine features of current social media governance structure. The fact that various social media stakeholders have different positions in relation to digital wildfires needs consideration while evolving controls over digital wildfires.
As we see it today, digital wildfires are subject to four forms of governance viz., legal governance, media governance, institutional governance and user self-governance. Will these sufficiently govern the complex risk of digital wildfires of tomorrow? Are there ways to spot digital wildfires or potential wildfires? What can and should we do to stop digital wildfires?

Speaker - Dr K Rama Subramaniam