Cloud, Cybersecurity & Data Management
Misinformation and the Deterioration of Digital Freedom
Description
Digital freedom in Russia has significantly deteriorated since February this year, after Russia took unprecedented steps to limit its citizens’ internet access, in order to maintain control over narratives about the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin first slowed down the internet, and later blocked platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google News and media sites entirely. Practices like this cater to autocracies’ political strategies of limiting citizens’ access to information and feeding them with new, invented truths. Avast’s latest research shows that a limitation of digital freedom has a negative impact on people’s online safety, privacy and overall digital wellbeing.
Avast security ambassador and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and Ondrej Vlcek, CEO of Avast, both grew up in the Soviet-controlled zone, where propaganda was part of the daily news agenda. In their talk, Garry and Ondrej will discuss digital freedom as well as research showing the spread of misinformation in and outside of Russia during the war in Ukraine.