“The reach and implications of big data and artificial intelligence are global. Their governing frameworks, though, are not. In fact, they scarcely exist.”
Global Economy Director Robert Fay
Disinformation and Social Media: A Global Governance Challenge
The 2016 US election was marked by malicious uses of technology, including new forms of “fake news” on social media platforms designed to sway voters. Since then, there has been a striking number of cases of commercially and politically driven disinformation, foreign interference in elections, data breaches, cyber attacks, the proliferation of harmful speech, data exploitation and surveillance abuses.
At this inflection point — in which democracies are strained by technologies — there is a pressing need for policy makers, civil society and the private sector alike to put forth a coordinated effort to govern the digital public sphere. In response to this gap in regulation, CIGI has led discussions in Canada and internationally on frameworks for social media regulation and the impacts of disinformation. At a May 2019 hearing in Ottawa, CIGI founder and Chair Jim Balsillie and Senior Fellow Taylor Owen appeared before the IGC on Big Data, Privacy and Democracy. Balsillie made specific recommendations designed to address the threats to democracy posed by a “toxic” social media business model.