Prince Harry joined a group of his colleagues who have been working together for more than half a year to release an ambitious report on tackling the growing mis- and disinformation problem in technology, media, and social media.
As the culmination of the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder, which began its work in spring of 2021, the group has outlined a list of 15 specific recommendations for leaders to consider adopting across the public, private, and non-profit sectors.
Comprised of policy experts, researchers and academics, tech industry voices, former public officials, philanthropic leaders, and representatives from the media, the Aspen Commission directed its many months of combined efforts on addressing the sources and causes of the modern information crisis.
The Commission’s final recommendations focus on three fundamental areas for combatting misinformation: increasing transparency, building trust, and reducing harms.
Of the report, The Duke of Sussex said: “For the better part of a year, we at the Aspen Commission have met regularly to debate, discuss, and draft solutions to the mis- and disinformation crisis, which is a global humanitarian issue.
I hope to see the substantive and practical recommendations of our Commission taken up by the tech industry, the media industry, by policymakers, and leaders. This affects not some of us, but all of us.”
This ambitious report is meant to advance solutions to the rapid rise of misinformation we’ve seen over recent years, which has created humanitarian crises, harmed communities, and impacted our democracies.
Highlights of the report include:
Calls for increasing social media transparency and disclosure;
A new proposal regarding social media platform immunity;
Ideas for need reversing the collapse of local journalism and the erosion of trusted media;
Community-led methods for improving civic dialogue and resisting imbalances of information power; and
Accountability for “superspreaders” of online lies.
