Closing the Gap Between Fact & Fake: Disinformation Solutions

Speakers

• Mitra Kalita

  Speaker

  Founder, Epicenter-NYC

  S. Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, prolific commentator and author of two books. Once described as “wonderfully blunt” by CNN anchor Brian Stelter, she is a change agent, loves writing headlines and framing stories, and blends digital strategy and audience-centric approaches while advocating for diversity and better management of our newsrooms. During Twitter debates on the definition of journalism (objectivity, view from nowhere, both sides!), Mitra prefers to spend her time committing it. Recently, she launched Epicenter-NYC , a newsletter to help New Yorkers get through the pandemic. Mitra has also recently co-founded a new media company called URL Media, a network of Black and Brown owned media organizations that share content, distribution and revenues to increase their long-term sustainability. She's on the board of the Philadelphia Inquirer and writes a weekly column for Fortune . Mitra was most recently SVP at CNN Digital, overseeing the national news, breaking news, programming, opinion and features teams. She led the launch of Live Story, a tool that helps audiences follow stories in real time. Her philosophy on the “ arc of a story ” has been cited and emulated in news outlets across the country.

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• Kelly Born

  Speaker

  Director, Cyber Initiative, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

  Kelly Born serves as one of two Program Officers for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s US Democracy portfolio. The Democracy Initiative supports organizations from across the ideological spectrum that are working to address the the democratic crisis the US currently faces. Kelly oversees grantmaking in areas including campaigns and elections, civic engagement, media and journalism, and digital disinformation. Before helping to launch the Hewlett Foundation’s democracy work, Kelly helped to launch the foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group, which is aimed at improving both Hewlett’s own internal philanthropic strategy, and the field of philanthropy more broadly. Prior to joining the Hewlett Foundation, Kelly worked as a strategy consultant with the Monitor Institute, a nonprofit consulting firm, where she led strategic planning efforts at a number of large US foundations. Earlier in her career, she consulted extensively with the private sector, nonprofits, and governments in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

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• Julie Owono

  Speaker

  Executive Director, Internet Sans Frontières

  Julie Owono is the Executive Director of Internet Sans Frontières (Internet Without Borders), a leading organization that defends digital rights and access to the internet. At the intersection of Business and Human Rights, her work focuses on creating channels of collaboration between different set of actors of the Internet. Particularly, as a non-resident Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University, and as an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, she is working on a policy and technical solution to bring local knowledge and context to algorithmic content moderation on social media platforms. Julie is a member of the Global Partnership on AI (AI) created by France and Canada, of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on AI for Humanity, of the WEF Council on the Connected World. She was also a member of UNESCO's Ad Hoc Expert Group (AHEG) for the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, a Member of the World Benchmarking Alliance's Expert Committee on Digital Inclusion, and a Civil Society member of the Global Network Initiative's Board. Julie graduated in International Law from La Sorbonne University in Paris, and practiced as a lawyer at the Paris Bar.

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• Adebayo Okeowo

  Speaker

  Program Manager, Africa, WITNESS

  Adebayo Okeowo is a human rights lawyer with over a decade’s experience working around issues of socio-economic rights, environmental justice, and international criminal accountability. His current focus is on exploring, through research and practice, the intersection between human rights and technology. Adebayo is the Africa Program Manager at WITNESS and leads the organization’s efforts in Africa. Prior to joining WITNESS, he worked as the Advocacy Coordinator for the Centre for Human Rights based in South Africa, during which time he led continent-wide campaigns that addressed human rights abuses against marginalized and vulnerable groups, especially women, children, migrants and persons with albinism. He also served as the Lab Manager at the University of Pretoria hub of the Digital Verification Corps project – a collaborative initiative between Amnesty International and six universities around the world which uses digital tools to verify citizen media with the aim of advancing accountability for human rights violations. He has spoken at TEDx Pretoria on the "Visual Disruption of Injustice" and has trained human rights activists in a number of African cities including Abuja, Accra, Cape Town, Conakry, Dakar and Harare. Adebayo holds an LLB from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and an LLM from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

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• Ory Okolloh

  Moderator

  Thought leader on governance and civic-tech; Impact Investor,

  Until recently, Ory was the Managing Director, Omidyar Network and Luminate Group in Africa, both part of The Omidyar Group. As a Principle at Asphalt & Ink she's providing strategic and advisory services to several organizations primarily in the philanthrophy, technology and the civic engagement space. She serves on the Board of Directors of several organisations including the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, East African Breweries Limited, the Board of Trustees of the Van Leer Group and is the Chair of the Stanbic Bank Foundation. She is also an Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) Fellow and has in the past served as advisory board member to Twiga Foods, Global Witness. Amnesty International Africa and Endeavor Kenya among other organisations. Prior to this, Ory was Google’s policy and strategy manager for Africa. Ory was also at the forefront of developing technology innovation as a founding member of Ushahidi. She was the organization’s Executive Director from inception until December 2010. Ory is also the co-founder of Mzalendo, a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan MPs. In 2011 Ory was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and one of Africa's most Powerful Women by Forbes Magazine. In 2014 she was named Time 100's most influential people in the world. Ory earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A in political science from the University of Pittsburgh.

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