The Google Campus in Warsaw, Poland, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, hosted the three-day 1991 Hackathon: Media, which brought together the best Ukrainian and European technology specialists to find digital solutions to counter disinformation, data analysis for media and cyber hygiene
Deputy Minister for European Integration Taras Shevchenko took part in the hackathon from MCIP.
According to him, Ukraine focuses on 3 areas of complex issues dealing with disinformation:
– media regulation;
– increasing the resilience of society;
– effective communication of authorities.
“If we focus exclusively on refuting disinformation, fake news, counting the number of widespread fakes, this is not that can help us effectively counter disinformation from large countries such as the russian federation. By the way, the word ‘disinformation’ came into English from russian and this term was invented in the Soviet Union. If you check the russian-language Wikipedia now, the ‘disinformation’ there also has a rather positive tone,” said Taras Shevchenko.
In his opinion, the most effective and essential part of the countering against disinformation is the banning and blocking of propaganda channels for the spread of disinformation. In particular, this applies to sanctions against russian TV channels at the level of the European Union. In 2022, russian channels such as RT, Sputnik and others stopped broadcasting in the EU precisely because of sanctions.
“In 2017, Odnoklassniki and VKontakte were blocked in Ukraine through sanctions. In 2021, in the same way, the broadcasting of pro-russian Medvedchuk’s TV channels was suspended. At that time, these decisions were not unequivocally evaluated in Europe, often statements about restrictions on freedom of speech were heard. But practice proved that these were the right solutions. And now in the European Union they are aware of it and impose sanctions against russian TV channels,” explained Taras Shevchenko.
Summing up, the Deputy Minister emphasized that it is important to increase the resilience of society, in particular, in such a way that citizens themselves refuse to consume russian media. Also, to counter disinformation, quality communication from the authorities is important in order to provide answers to all questions that interest society.
