Buffett Symposium: Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World

The global information environment is undergoing a significant transformation, as major social media platforms and government institutions retreat from their active roles in combating disinformation. Platforms such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok are scaling back centralized moderation and professional fact-checking efforts, even defunding global fact-checking organizations, and increasingly shifting the responsibility for addressing disinformation onto everyday users. At the same time, the U.S. government has shuttered key programs, such as the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, withdrawn funding from regional and independent media outlets that counter propaganda and disinformation, and discontinued support for academic research in this area, signaling a broader institutional disengagement.

These shifts mark the emergence of a “post-moderation” era—one in which individuals and communities must take greater responsibility for identifying, interpreting, and responding to disinformation without the robust gatekeeping of the past.

This two-day symposium convenes global experts and practitioners from industry, public policy, academia, and civil society to address four urgent priorities for this new era: sustaining trust and credibility in information flows; strengthening accountability for platforms, governments, and users alike; advancing innovative tools and strategies to counter disinformation; and forging multi-sector collaboration to build resilient information ecosystems worldwide.

Co-hosted by the Roberta Buffet Institute for Global Affairs and the Center for Communication & Public Policy at Northwestern University.

Confirmed Speakers

• Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Countering Digital Hate
• David Bray, Distinguished Chair of the Accelerator at the Stimson Center (USA)
• Angie Drobnic Holan, Director of International Factchecking Network at Poynter Institute (USA)
• Shih-Hung Lo, Chairman, Taiwanese Factchecking Center (Taiwan)
• Ellen McCarthy, Founder & CEO Trust in Media Cooperative and former Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence & Research (USA)
• Andrew Pel, Head of Campaigns, Moonshot
• Gordon Pennycook, Associate Professor, Cornell University (USA)
• Viktoria Romaniuk, Deputy Chief Editor of StopFake and Director of Mohyla School of Journalism
• Erin Saltman, Membership and Programs Senior Director, Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)
• Emily Vraga, Don and Carole Larson Professorship in Health Communication, University of Minnesota Twin Cities (USA)
• James Warren, Executive Editor NewsGuard (USA)

Please note that 720 University Place is not an ADA-accessible space. Increasing physical access to buildings and facilities is a goal of the University, but not all buildings and venues have been updated.

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Host or Publisher Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs