Decentralized social media platforms offer the promise of alternative governance structures that empower consumers and rebuild social media on a foundation of trust. However, over two years after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter sparked an exodus of users seeking new homes on the social web, federated platforms remain ill-equipped to meet the threats of abuse, harassment, coordinated manipulation, and spam that have plagued social media for years. Given the porous nature of decentralized services, these limitations will not just affect individual servers, but reverberate through the social web.

Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Leaders is a special half-day conference hosted by the 2023-2024 James C. Gaither Junior Fellows. Over the course of three sessions, panelists will discuss issues impacting youth including the evolving global order and role of institutions, climate change, AI, radicalization, and shifts in the information landscape.   

As information integrity is increasingly used in the context of the information environment, it needs a clear definition that provides guidance on how the concept can be translated into policy. 

Federated platforms face considerable obstacles to robust and scalable governance, particularly with regard to persistent threats such as coordinated behavior and spam.

Companies have submitted two sets of reports for the new EU Code of Practice on Disinformation. To date, reports have only offered limited insight.

From COVID-19 misinformation to authoritarian crackdowns on democratic protests or hybrid warfare involving information manipulation, the negative impacts that crises have on the information environment can be challenging to reverse, threatening the physical safety of civilians and the democratic stability of societies.

Many discussions about social media governance and trust and safety are focused on a small number of centralized, corporate-owned platforms. The emergence and growth in popularity of federated social media services introduces new opportunities, but also significant new risks and complications.

Researchers, policymakers, and civil society groups need to come together to clarify among themselves and for platforms what type of information would be most helpful to protect the public interest and what framework could ensure this information is feasible for platforms to provide.