The viral spread of false, misleading, and inaccurate information on topics from Covid-19 to racial justice threaten our social fabric and democracy worldwide.

With November’s elections looming, and as fraught questions about “truth,” “fact,” and “accuracy” are debated, BHS and the Social Science Research Council turn to the role authenticity plays as it relates to trust in politicians and institutions. Does an aura of authenticity enable misinformation? Are lies more palatable when generated by an ‘authentic’ source? Join three experts as they dig into identity, belonging, political participation and more: Sarah Banet-Weiser, London School of Economics professor and author of Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture; sociologist Francesca Tripodi of the University of North Carolina, whose expert testimony before the Senate Judiciary last year focused on censorship, technology and public discourse; and Andre Brock, associate professor of media studies at Georgia Tech and author of Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures. The program is moderated by Heidi Tworek, Associate Professor of International History and Public Policy at the University of British Columbia, author of the book News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900-1945, and advisor to governments around the world on how to address hate speech and disinformation.

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