Nine months into the 2024 global elections year, how well are governments and social media companies safeguarding democracy? In the past few years, governments around the world have responded to platform-enabled foreign interference, threats against politicians, and campaigns of disinformation with policies to protect election integrity and democratic participation. However, government regulations and platforms’ own policies have provoked concerns that they may undermine freedom of expression or election fairness. What’s the global state of play with regard to social media and freedom of speech in elections in the midst of the 2024 election cycle?

Join us in person at SSRC to hear three experts in political communication discuss how digital media is being used in elections around the world. We will be joined by Shannon McGregor (UNC-Chapel Hill), Jonathan Corpus Ong (UMass Amherst) and Chris Tenove (University of British Columbia), who will lay out what we know so far about how the actions taken by platforms and governments to regulate speech on social media affects elections and democratic practice.

Their conversation will highlight how digitally networked information environments challenge democratic institutions—chief among them, the ability to establish a shared sense of reality.

The discussion will be a live recording of The Sunday Show, the Tech Policy Press podcast, and will be moderated by TPP editor Justin Hendrix. 

McGregor, Ong and Tenove are contributing to an international study of social media policies and elections run by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, based at the University of British Columbia. 

The event will begin at 6:30 on August 26, 2024; a happy hour will follow the event. Please RSVP for more details! RSVP here: https://forms.gle/QapBYqKthvKRtjTX8

Speakers

Shannon McGregor, Associate Professor

UNC-Chapel Hill

Jonathan Corpus Ong, Associate Professor

UMass Amherst

Chris Tenove, Associate Director

University of British Columbia