The Weaponization of Disinformation in Canada — two-day workshop

Thursday, April 27, 2023 12:00 am - Friday, April 28, 2023 12:00 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

Global events like Brexit, electoral interference, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have made the abstract threat of digital disinformation into a distinct reality. The shifting global balance of power, characterized by growing multipolarity, is unfolding alongside the expansion of tools, strategies, and spaces for adversarial states and non-state actors to expand their influence, disrupt multilateral diplomacy, threaten liberal democratic norms and values, and de-legitimize a rules-based global order. 

illustration of people, computers and media rooms
Adversarial states and non-state actors are increasingly adept, agile, and strategic in digital spaces, using information and communication technologies to advance geopolitical, ideological, and strategic objectives. Digital disinformation poses a growing geopolitical, foreign policy, and national security challenge for democracies like Canada and the need to identify risks and threats is increasing in importance. 

Presented by Waterloo's Cybersecurity and Privacy Institue, this two-day workshop focuses on the weaponization of digital disinformation including discussions on the problem of digital disinformation from a theoretical perspective, empirical and evidence-based examples of how disinformation is weaponized, the rapidly changing threat landscape for liberal democracies, as well as mitigation strategies, policy responses, and best practices of dealing with the growing threat of digital disinformation. The workshop will feature panels of academics with expertise on digital disinformation in Canada and more generally, tech industry and civil society stakeholders working in the space of digital disinformation and mitigation, journalists and independent researchers, and senior government officials from heritage, national defense, and national security.