Roundtable on Information Integrity in an Evolving AI Landscape

Organized by the U.N. Department of Global Communications, UNESCO, the Delegation of the European Union to the U.N. in New York, the Permanent Missions to the U.N. of the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Zambia, Romania, Brazil 

Background
The UN Secretary-General launched the United Nations Global Principles for Information Integrity in June 2024, responding to a global need for unified guidance to address risks to information integrity such as misinformation, disinformation and hate speech across online and offline information landscapes, challenges that have grown increasingly complex with the advent of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.  

The Department of Global Communications, with the UN system, developed the UN Global Principles through extensive consultations with Member States, civil society, including youth organizations, the private sector, including technology companies and advertisers, and academia. The Principles reflect the perspectives and needs of a range of important stakeholders, including those in vulnerable and marginalized situations. The UN Global Principles serve as a resource to realize the Global Digital Compact’s goal of an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe and secure digital future for all.                       

Objective 
A roundtable would bring together stakeholders for open dialogue to explore solutions on how the UN Global Principles serve as a practical resource for advancing the five objectives of the Global Digital Compact: bridge digital divides and accelerate Sustainable Development Goals; promote inclusion in the digital economy; safeguard human rights in digital spaces; establish fair, interoperable data governance practices; and ethical development of artificial intelligence. The UN Global Principles provide actionable guidance for stakeholders to strengthen information integrity while upholding human rights. The Principles call for building societal trust and resilience; creating healthy incentives for information integrity in digital advertising; fostering public empowerment; strengthening an independent, free and pluralistic media; and advancing transparency and research, particularly by supporting researchers and perspectives from the global South.

Format
The roundtable would focus on solutions, encourage the exchange of experiences, best practices and ongoing initiatives, highlighting the importance of multistakeholder cooperation. In this context, all speakers may choose to draw on a variety of collaborations involving States, international organizations and civil society, as appropriate.

AGENDA (75 minutes, English, No interpretation)
Opening (25 minutes)

• Welcome: Charlotte Scaddan, Senior Adviser on Information Integrity, Department of Global Communications (moderator)

• Keynote: Melissa Fleming, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications  
• Remarks: Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO Assistant-Director General for Communication and Information (3 minutes)

• Remarks: Representatives of co-organizing Member States (3 minutes)
  European Union Delegation to the U.N., Zambia, Romania, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Brazil

   

  Roundtable Discussion (50 minutes)
  Thematic interventions (20 minutes)
  Speakers from civil society offer remarks focusing on solution-oriented approaches, with particular attention to approaches in resource-deficient geographies. (4 minutes each)
   

• Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Wikimedia Foundation)
  Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead

• Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) 
  Professor/Coordinator for Research Professional Development in the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
   

• Nandini Chami (IT for Change) 
  Deputy Director 
   

• Nils Berglund (European University Institute)
  Project Lead, Global Initiative on the Future of the Internet

  
  Open floor/Q&A (30 minutes)
  Moderator calls on audience and speakers to respond to, comment, build on, ideas heard in the thematic interventions. 

   

  Closing (Department of Global Communications)