12: Defending democracy in the digital age: From theory to practice
Digitalisation involves the rapid progress of information and communication technologies. However, these developments also enable the abuse of systems to influence political processes. Thus, they pose new challenges for democracy. Is the digital space becoming a new arena of war? How can we safeguard democratic values and protect citizens from targeted misinformation and manipulation? We look at the solutions being discussed today.
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Julia EBNER
Research Fellow, ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue, London
Julia Ebner is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and author of the bestselling book "The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism". She leads ISD’s research on cumulative extremism and coordinates the Online Civil Courage Initiative in cooperation with Facebook Germany. Julia spent two years working for the world’s first counter-extremism organisation, Quilliam, where she carried out research projects on terrorism prevention for the European Commission and the Kofi Annan Foundation and gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on far-right extremism. In her role as the coordinator of the pan-European network Families Against Terrorism and Extremism (FATE), she led radicalization-prevention projects across Europe and North Africa. On the basis of her research, Julia advises parliamentary working groups, frontline workers and tech firms; speaks at international conferences; and delivers workshops in schools and universities. She regularly writes for The Guardian and The Independent and gives interviews in English, German and French on the BBC, CNN, ZDF, ARD, France24, Al Jazeera, LBC and others. |
Anton SHEKHOVTSOV
Research Associate, IEAC - Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, Kiev
Anton Shekhovtsov is a Research Associate at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, an expert at the European Platform for Democratic Elections and General Editor of the "Explorations of the Far Right" book series at ibidem-Verlag. His main area of expertise is the European far right, relations between Russia and radical right-wing parties in the West, and illiberal tendencies in Central and Eastern Europe. He is the author of the Russian language book New Radical Right-Wing Parties in European Democracies (ibidem-Verlag, 2011) and the book Russia and the Western Far Right (Routledge, 2017), as well as co-editor of The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right (Palgrave, 2014). He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies, and published several academic articles in Journal of Democracy, Russian Politics and Law, Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, and Patterns of Prejudice among others. |
M.phil. Conor CAMPBELL
Student, AMA - Alpbach Media Academy, Donaghadee
Mphil Monika RICHTER
Analyst, Kremlin Watch Program, European Values Think-Tank, Prague
2012-2013 | Private Language Tutor, British GCSE German |
2013-2014 | Contractual Research Assistant School of International Relations, University of St Andrews |
2015-2016 | Assistant Researcher, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford |
2014-2016 | Contributing Author and Management Committee Member, Free Speech Debate, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford |
since 2017 | Member, Weaponized Narrative Initiative, Center on the Future of War, Arizona State University |
Analyst, Kremlin Watch Program, European Values Think-tank, Prague, Czech Republic |