EVENT
RIGHTSCON 2025
WHEN: 24-27 February, 2025
WHERE: Taipei, Taiwan
WEBSITE: rightscon.org
Our team will be contributing to the following sessions:
💬 Lightning Talk - From Content to Payment: How Social Media Platforms are Subsidizing Disinformation
Victoire Rio
We talk a lot about social media companies’ inability to moderate content, targeted advertising, and recommendation algorithms’ propensity to amplify hate and disinformation. But social media companies are contributing to disinformation is even more pernicious ways.
This thought provoking talk will look at the rise and implication of social media ad revenue share programs, unpacking how platforms have been channeling US$ billions to content creators and publishers, onboarding sanctioned entities, channeling large payouts to actors engaged in illegal activities, and incentivising and subsidizing the development of the know-how, assets and tools at the heart of the disinformation crisis.
With social media companies fast becoming payment behemoths, this talk will make the case for the urgent need for greater transparency and oversight of social media ad revenue sharing.
💬 Panel - Ad-vantage Points: Digital Ad Transparency Through The Lens of Europe’s Rulebook And APAC’s Marketplace Of Ideas
Victoire Rio, Alice Dawkins, Miraj Chowdhury, Rys Farthing, Felix Kröner
Transparency is a prerequisite of accountability. It is crucial to shed light on money flows behind advertising campaigns on social media platforms that have the potential to influence public opinion on a large scale—especially in places where governments restrict and interfere in the information ecosystem.
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) mandates an ad repository for paid advertisement campaigns on platforms to increase transparency for users and researchers. However, the DSA’s implementation—so far—does not live up to expectations. Moreover, this regulatory route to increasing accountability via prescriptive transparency obligations has its own drawbacks and may pose risks and challenges if put into effect in contexts different to the EU, such as in Asia.
Our discussion brings together practitioners from five countries across three continents: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Germany, Indonesia, and Australia to compare and contrast the status quo—including regulatory frameworks—of ad transparency and approaches to researching ads on platforms in their respective geographies.
We'll look for participants to contribute with 1) an overview of the negative consequences stemming from the lack of ad transparency in their respective geographies, 2) insights into initiatives that research and aim to increase ad transparency, and 3) takes on potential benefits or risks that may flow from adopting regulatory approaches similar to those in the EU and Australia elsewhere.
💬 Panel - Exit strategies for crisis-related human rights restrictions
💬 Panel - Building Successful Escalation Channels for Online Safety: A Framework to Measure Effectiveness
Featured
What Social Media Companies Don’t Want Us To Know About Misinformation
#EUDisinfo2024: Can advertising cash stop funding misinformation trash?
DRAPAC 2024: How is social media monetization fueling disinformation in Asia? And what should we do about it?
POINT 2024: How To Pull The Plug On Monetizing Disinformation
#EUDisinfo2024: Mission NOT accomplished: unintended fallbacks from investigations
EUDisinfoLab Webinar: From Content To Payment
We’re Hiring: Investigation Lead
New Initiative: Most Shared Content
Global Fact 2024: How Social Media Ad Revenue Sharing Is Subsidizing Disinformation Globally
We’re Hiring: Policy Lead (Position filled)
NEW REPORT: From Content to Payment -The Rise And Implications Of Social Media Ad Revenue Sharing
Join us at RightsCon25