The Impact Congress is regarded as one of the most important business and technology events in Central and Eastern Europe. This year’s edition, entitled ‘Business – Economy – Technology’, took place in Poznań on 13–14 May. Over six hundred people from the worlds of politics, science, business, NGOs and culture took part in the discussions. Much attention was devoted to the problems faced by societies and states in cyberspace, which was originally intended to be a space of freedom but has, over time, also become a sphere of manipulation used to exert pressure.
In the face of ongoing geopolitical crises and the challenges posed by disinformation, the need to build social cohesion and resilience has been confirmed. One of the key tools for dealing with disinformation is the ability to think critically. It is precisely this skill that is of paramount importance in resisting emotional manipulation. Such manipulation involves messaging designed to provoke extreme emotions such as fear, anger, outrage or shock, with the hidden aim of deepening polarisation. Emotions, after all, hinder logical thinking. Typical tools of disinformation include sensationalist language and clickbait: the use by anonymous users or those posing as experts (incidentally, these need not be human – the task of spreading disinformation can be carried out by bots) of surprising phrases that do not inform, but rather, by causing shock, compel the reader to click. Furthermore, a typical tool of disinformation is the use of information that, whilst true, is taken out of context. Forms that exert pressure on the recipient spread particularly easily in cyberspace, and disinformers are particularly fond of operating on social media.
The threat is so great that a separate track was dedicated to discussions on this topic at the Congress – Disinformation and technology. The following issues were highlighted during numerous debates:
- The risk of losing access to the truth, understood as a shared set of facts. Deepfakes created using AI technology make it difficult to distinguish false information from the truth.
- Fake news: We must continuously educate the public, build trust in institutions, and hold technology platforms accountable for spreading unverified content.
- Pressure on the media: Questions were raised about how to protect democracy in an era of populism and hybrid warfare without curtailing freedom of expression.
Dr habil. Kinga Machowicz, Professor at the Catholic University of Lublin