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Considering the opportunities and challenges that have emerged in recent years due to the penetration of the internet and ICTs, it is essential to analyze the impacts of digital transformation on democratic systems. With this central purpose, the 7th Meeting of the Open Parliament Network (ParlAmericas) was held, leading the discussion from the paradigm of open parliament with a view to understanding how initiatives can be implemented to ensure that digital governance is transparent and responsible. The event program also included reflections on the social impacts of these transformations, with a special focus on the empowerment of women within the framework of an inclusive digital governance that recognizes the critical importance of their substantive participation in the digital ecosystem as an indispensable condition for more robust and solid democracies.
The director of our Digital Citizenship Program, a professor at the School of Communication and Journalism of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, and an associate researcher at GobLab, Luis Enrique Santana, moderated the panel “Addressing Online Disinformation from Parliament” at the 7th Meeting of the Open Parliament Network (ParlAmericas) held on April 20th at the Salón de Honor of the National Congress in Santiago.
The panel was composed of Sara Fratti, program coordinator for Guatemala and part of the Avina Foundation; Matías Ponce, communications director of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Nazima Raghubir, member of the Media Institute of the Caribbean Council; and Kate Arthur, founder and CEO of Digital Moment. The democratization of information, fake news, and citizen participation were some of the aspects analyzed by the panelists mentioned.
Santana stated that currently, “We have a public sphere, with diffuse boundaries, radicalized, in which there are groups that organize disinformation campaigns taking advantage of this new context and because they know that here they influence political deliberations and political processes… so when we talk about disinformation we are not only talking about errors or misunderstandings or information overload. We are talking about systematic attempts to manipulate public opinion. And it is a big problem for parliaments that inform themselves in this place.”