Alpha Stream Team Summaries

Final3 - William & Mary

Every country has different cybersecurity laws. It causes difficulty with implementing international law and cooperation. Some countries, especially the countries outside of NATO, are unwilling to cooperate for economic or political reasons, causing room for disinformation.

Solution 1: 

Setting up an international organization that cooperates with other countries in the defense of stabilizability in cyberspace. Through the organization, we can provide major resources and opportunities for information access.

For instance, building up a shared cyber platform to address the issue caused by the information gap, while allowing an internationalized platform regulation team reduces the problem of wrong information.

Solution 2: Creations of Activist Group

Aiming to encourage more government regulations of misinformation from political campaigns spread from within the US and abroad to reduce false information. Activist groups can push lawmakers to pass controversial amendments to media laws that allow the government to regulate and reduce false information online.

Cyberguards - Antalya Bilim University

How can NATO enhance cybersecurity awareness and readiness in order to combat disinformation online in particular on social media where the threat is constantly evolving? The case study brings up the problems which are currently being faced globally i.e Europe. In the solutions given below, we have used different tactics to tackle with what is known to be the assurance of sovereign freedom and to get rid of threats the international community is fronting through cyber security issues. A proposal of fact check is being put up on both micro and macro level where there will be a formation of an association run by professionals from different fields of expertise such as academicians, military personnel, activists, bureaucrats etc. In addition, with that we are proposing to have a Stock Mechanism for the information flow among the borders to create transparency and ability to deal with unexpected threats effectively.

Banana Pie - Technische Universität Berlin; Humboldt Universität Berlin; University of St Andrews

Bearing in mind the importance of freedom of speech and without wanting to restrict people’s access to and use of social media, our solution to the problem of disinformation within social media is the following: NATO develops an algorithm to detect possible trending topics. For these topics, NATO will do a preliminary fact-check and publish a website containing both, facts and disinformation being spread about that topic (showing why it is false). It will cooperate with private companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to insert a disclaimer visible for every post falling under that tooic, that will inform people about the website and where to find more official information.

Article 5 - Cardiff University

This action plan is a twin-pronged approach to combating cyber threats around the world. By focusing on educating the populace, through a NATO founded non-profit, we can ensure that there is an international resilience to cyber threats. The global reach of this will expand on the CTCL mechanism that has shown to be effective in the USA, which has assisted 76 million people in the US since it was founded. Further, by using the resources and capabilities of NATO diplomatically, we can pressure governments to follow the approach of Estonia, which is enforcing mandatory cybersecurity education in schools, beginning 2022. The benefits of this are self-explanatory, and go hand-in-hand with the non-profit’s goals.  These approaches together will help protect the international community from disinformation, and other cyber threats.

CyberEagles - Ashland University

The most effective plan of action we can take is to improve media literacy. There needs to be shift in the way society looks at content, reaching an understanding that propaganda is everywhere, and takes different forms than it has historically.  The methodology goes beyond posters, film, music, speech, etc. People need to see that malicious actors in other countries benefit from a “divide and conquer” approach. If we allow them to win a war on our minds, they gain a significant foothold. We have tools at our disposal such as our educational system, advertisements, and news outlets that can help by giving members and viewers a chance to reach media literacy. Social media can also play a role by using algorithmic checkers to flag potentially opinionated posts, warning users how dangerous misinformation can be, and additionally give users an option to read further about propaganda.

Attack on Owls - Bryn Mawr College

We aim to combat disinformation through three actions. Firstly, we’d like to raise public awareness by popularizing the idea of disinformation through NATO websites and providing related authorized educational resources. This enables the educated public to identify disinformation and decreases their possibility of being misled by disinformation. Secondly, we’d like to coordinate with social media to provide page warnings that show up on sensitive topics that might mislead people and weak areas where seditious posts and comments are made. Thirdly, we would utilize the current NATO platforms such as Instagram or Twitter to provide original information to users. NATO could conduct online live interviews on these platforms by inviting individual politicians or campaign parties or inviting third-party editors by reviewing politicians’ statements to ensure the originality of the information released to the public.

ODU Fedora Fellows - Old Dominion University

With the guidance of the UNESCO handbook and NATO associated countries such as Estonia and Finland as starting points for beta trials, NATO News could become a reality in the next calendar year. Being rooted in the desire of providing accessible,  honest information for learning purposes, building a community of learners searching for answers will not only build trust with our news source, but with NATO as a whole. We understand the threat that disinformation presents for ourselves, our governments, and our future. Allowing the younger generations to help drive the change in the world they are soon to take on is simply responding to their demands and desires. We understand the fears that the world has in the current media, and we wish to absolve them. Truth is not subjective, and we are ready to prove that.

NATO Potato - University of Calgary; Sciences Po Paris; Leiden University

Thus far, NATO has been fairly incompetent in terms of its participation in the world of digital democracy. To thrive in the age of digital democracy you have to be willing to effectively engage in a variety of ways, such as through images, videos, or pieces of text that could be quickly shared. More importantly, the message disseminated has to be recognizable, trustworthy, and humorous. We suggest that there is a positive pattern of exposure to political memes. Political memes have effects for rapid dissemination, increase civic participation, and are effective in countering disinformation. Our model aims to facilitate an environment which would engender digital democracy. It is a policy which results in immediate effects but also builds a robust environment combating disinformation in the long-run.