Ong Contributes Essay to Global Collection Focused on Countering Disinformation

Jonathan Corpus Ong, communication, has contributed one of five interdisciplinary essays to a new “Global Insights” collection, published by the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Forum for Democratic Studies, which spotlights innovative perspectives and new methods for countering disinformation.

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The essay collection follows the recent Summit for Democracy, during which Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa called for a global response to the challenge of disinformation driven by new technologies. While preserving the integrity of the information space was identified as a key challenge at the summit, the essays in the new report by journalists, scholars and civil society activists envision a globally networked response to the disinformation challenge.

In his essay, “Building Comprehensive Approaches to Combating Disinformation in Illiberal Settings: Insights from the Philippines,” Ong writes that illiberal and authoritarian regimes threaten to undermine recent positive developments in counter-disinformation efforts. Local counter-disinformation organizations operating under repressive regimes, like in the Philippines, face unique challenges, which are exacerbated by the ambivalent – and at times discordant – relationship between foreign supporters and local organizations that both work to counter disinformation in these societies. Ong writes that funders, researchers and other civil society organizations based in more open settings must adapt their approaches to collaboration in recognition of the repression these organizations face.

Other contributors to the report, “Innovation in Counter-Disinformation: Toward Globally Networked Civil Society,” include: Sipho Kings, editorial director of “The Continent”; Laura Livingston, European regional director of Over Zero, an organization working to create societal resilience to political and identity-based violence; writer, analyst, and investigative journalist Casey Michel; and Kevin Sheives, associate director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Shieves co-edited the collection with John Engelken, editorial coordinator at the International Forum for Democratic Studies.

The complete publication is available online now from the National Endowment for Democracy.