Liberal democracy

Forum Against Fakes – Together for a Strong Democracy

Forum Against Fakes – Together for a Strong Democracy
Forum Against Fakes – Together for a Strong Democracy

The comprehensive participation format aims to initiate a nationwide debate on dealing with disinformation and strengthen democratic dialogue in the process.

Digital innovations such as high-speed internet, artificial intelligence, smartphones and social media have dramatically changed the speed, intensity and character of public communication. Alongside many benefits, they also make it easier to spread disinformation. New technologies and programs enable the manipulation of images, videos or audio. The term disinformation is defined as manipulated and intentionally disseminated content. The rapid spread of deliberately false or misleading claims, often circulated and shared unchecked with a single click can lead to uncertainty and erosion of trust within society, making disinformation a potential threat to our democracy. The nationwide participation project “Forum Against Fakes – Together for a Strong Democracy”, launched in January 2024, aims to keep abreast of this development.

Forum Against Fakes: Launch of the Citizens' Assembly. Source: Bertelsmann Foundation

Forum Against Fakes
Forum Against Fakes

Who is behind “Forum Against Fakes” and what specific goals does the project aim to achieve?

“Forum Against Fakes - Together for a Strong Democracy" is a project run by the Bertelsmann Stiftung. The foundation is cooperating on the project with the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the Stiftung Mercator and the Michael Otto Foundation for Sustainability. It is also supported by the news portal T-Online, the organization Deutschland sicher im Netz e.V., the #UseTheNews initiative and a project advisory board with additional experts.

In collaboration with as many citizens as possible, the project aims to explore how democratic dialogue can be strengthened, find a better way to deal with disinformation, and formulate concrete recommendations for action for politicians. In addition to knowledge about disinformation, the project also seeks to strengthen each individual's ability to critically question sources. The aim is to increase competence in the responsible use of different media and reduce uncertainty.

How can citizens participate in the project?

Dealing with disinformation is not just an individual task, but a task for society as a whole: In order to involve as many people as possible and achieve the best possible result, the project combines two different types of participation. On the one hand, the entire population is invited to join: through a broad-based online participation program, everyone can contribute suggestions in various phases on the topic or provide comments on how to deal with disinformation. On the other hand, a diverse group of 120 citizens will discuss the results of the participation process in a Citizens' Assembly and work on the most important points. The members of this group come from all federal states, from small villages to large cities, and they reflect the diversity of German society in terms of gender, age, educational levels and migration background.

In September 2024, Citizens' Assembly will hand over the developed Citizens' Report with policy recommendations to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat / BMI) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Other ministries, parliamentary committees and specialized federal and state politicians will also receive the Citizens' Report. Among other things, the BMI will use the policy recommendations from the Report to develop a strategy for dealing with disinformation.

Forum Against Fakes
Forum Against Fakes

Why is the project taking place in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI)?

An important task of the BMI is to defend democracy and strengthen social cohesion. This includes taking the threat of foreign influence and manipulation of information, as well as disinformation, seriously and actively countering it. In order to fulfill its role in strengthening overall state and societal resilience, the BMI raises awareness on topics such as the influence of social media on public debates or the role of artificial intelligence in communication.

Because disinformation affects the entire society, it is crucial having a broad public dialogue on this topic. This discourse should be carried out in collaboration with civil society organizations and foundations. As a result, the BMI endorses the project led by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and collaborates with other participating institutions.

The role of the BMI is primarily to bring the initiative into the political sphere and to utilize the citizens’ opinions and recommendations for further work of the issue of disinformation. The BMI’s involvement in the project therefore contributes to proactive, fact-based and transparent communication by the federal government in dealing with disinformation.

Source: www.forum-gegen-fakes.de, Bertelsmann Stiftung
Photo credits: Sebastian Pfütze