Strategic disinformation is a malignant accelerant for major societal problems such as climate change denial, the rise and sustenance of extremism, radicalisation of terrorism, criminal fraud, and suppression of rights. It is exploited across all information dissemination platforms, including social media, news media, financial and non-financial reporting, and other broadcast vehicles.
Purpose
Convene global thought leaders from psychology, journalism, financial reporting, political science, and related information science fields to discuss:
- the societal impact of strategic disinformation
- methods used to disseminate disinformation
- the psychology of self-deception and wilful ignorance and why disinformation is effective at changing human behaviour
- cross-discipline and sustainable ways to mitigate disinformation efficacy.
Registration
Due to extremely limited availability, attendance for the July in-person and live feed online events requires registration.
Register to attend the Cambridge Disinformation Summit via live online feed
The cost to join this event via a live online feed is £125. To apply for a need-based registration fee waiver, please email [email protected].
Selected individuals may receive private invitations to attend in person.
Location
The Cambridge Disinformation Summit will be held at King’s College, Cambridge.
A dinner will also be hosted at King’s College, Cambridge.
Thursday 27 July 2023
Time |
Event |
---|---|
08:30-08:45 |
Conference welcome |
08:45-09:30 |
Disinformation: Definition, history, strategy, consequences |
09:30-10:00 |
Break |
10:00-11:30 |
Belief systems: Why is disinformation effective? |
11:30-12:00 |
Break |
12:00-13:30 |
Disinformation implications: health, democracy, business, climate |
13:30-14:30 |
Lunch |
14:30-15:45 |
Platform accountability vs free speech rights |
15:45-16:15 |
Break |
16:15-17:30 |
Discerning information credibility: fact-checking, natural language processing, and audit |
Friday 28 July 2023
Time |
Event |
---|---|
08:30-09:30 |
Profiteering: The business of disinformation |
09:30-10:30 |
Journalistic integrity |
10:30-11:00 |
Break |
11:00-12:30 |
Micro targeting |
12:30-13:30 |
Lunch |
13:30-15:00 |
Open-source intelligence |
15:00-15:30 |
Break |
15:30-17:15 |
Counterprogramming and debunking strategies |
18:00-18:30 |
Drinks |
18:30-19:15 |
Keynote: Social media amplification and accountability |
19:15-19:30 |
Closing comments |
19:30-21:30 |
Dinner |

Dinner keynote
Frances Haugen
Advocate for Accountability & Transparency in Social Media and Co-Founder of Beyond the Screen
Speakers
Abdullahi Alim
Head of Project 2030 at the International Chamber of Commerce
Brad Badertscher
Deloitte Professor of Accountancy, University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business
Robert Bloomfield
Nicholas H. Noyes Professor of Management, Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business
Kalina Bontcheva
Professor of Computer Science and Head of Natural Language Processing Research Group, University of Sheffield
Joshua Braun
Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Emma Briant
Research Affiliate, University of Cambridge Judge Business School Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability
Nerissa Brown
Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Professor of Accountancy, University of Illinois Gies College of Business
Christabel Cowling
EY UK&I Audit Partner and UK Head of Regulatory and Public Policy
Henry Friedman
Associate Professor of Accounting, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Alexandra Geese
Member, European Parliament
Julie Inman Grant
Australia eSafety Commissioner
Todd Helmus
Senior Behavioural Scientist, RAND Corporation
Alan Jagolinzer
Professor of Financial Reporting, University of Cambridge Judge Business School
Stephen Jolly
Former senior British Defence official; Fellow Commoner, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge; Senior Adviser, Reputation Inc., Oslo
Agne Kaarlep
Head of Policy at Tremau & Former Policy Officer for Digital Services and Platforms at European Commission
Brian Klaas
Associate Professor in Global Politics, University College London
Dessi Lange-Damianova
Chief Operating Officer, Bellingcat
Heidi Larson
Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine & Director, Vaccine Confidence Project
Stephan Lewandowsky
Chair in Cognitive Psychology, School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol
Craig Lewis
Madison S. Wiggington Professor of Finance, Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management and former Chief Economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Mark Manning
Technical Specialist, Sustainable Finance and Stewardship, Financial Conduct Authority
Lee Mwiti
Chief Editor, Africa Check
Sunita Sah
Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business
Richard Sambrook
Emeritus Professor, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture
Marie Santini
Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro School of Communication
Gabriella Stern
Director of Communications, World Health Organization
David Stillwell
Professor of Computational Social Science, University of Cambridge Judge Business School
Stefan Thiel
John Thornely Fellow and Director of Studies in Law, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge
Jussi Toivanen
Head of Communications, Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, National Cyber Security Centre
Sander van der Linden
Professor of Social Psychology in Society, University of Cambridge
Clare Wang
Professor of Accounting and Director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility Research, University of Colorado
Michael Willis
Management Practice Associate Professor and Director of the Cambridge Executive Master of Accounting Programme
More speakers will be added as they are confirmed.
- Abdullahi Alim, Head of Project 2030 at the International Chamber of Commerce
- Brad Badertscher, Deloitte & Touche Professor of Accountancy, University of Notre Dame
- Robert Bloomfield, Nicholas H. Noyes Professor of Management, Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business
- Hui Chen, Professor of Accounting, University of Zurich
- Angus Crawford, Correspondent, BBC News
- Stephen Cushion, Director of Postgraduate Research, School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University
- Mark de Rond, Professor of Organisational Ethnography, Cambridge Judge Business School
- Peter Easton, Director, Center for Accounting Research & Education, University of Notre Dame
- Michelle Ferrier, Executive Director, Media Innovation Collaboratory; Professor, FAMU School of Journalism & Graphic Communication; Founder of TrollBusters
- Duncan Green, Professor of Practice in International Development, London School of Economics; Senior Strategic Adviser, Oxfam GB
- Alan Jagolinzer, Professor of Financial Accounting, Co-Director, Cambridge Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability
- Stephen Jolly, Professeur Agrégé de Géopolitique, ESC Rennes School of Business, Grande École; Fellow Commoner, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge; former senior British Defence official and propagandist
- Brian Klaas, Associate Professor in Global Politics, University College London
- Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director, Cambridge Social Decision-Making Laboratory, University of Cambridge
- Miriam Matthews, Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist, RAND Corporation
- Sarah McVay, Deloitte & Touche Endowed Professor in Accounting, University of Washington Foster School of Business
- Joseph Pierre, MD, Health Sciences Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California at San Francisco
- Rafael Rogo, Professor of Accounting, Co-Director, Cambridge Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability
- Thomas Roulet, University Senior Lecturer in Organisation Theory, University of Cambridge Judge Business School
- Sunita Sah, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell University
- Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director, Stanford University Cyber Policy Center; International Policy Fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; former Member of European Parliament.
- David Stillwell, Lecturer in Big Data Analytics and Quantitative Social Science, Cambridge Judge Business School; Academic Director, The Psychometrics Centre, University of Cambridge
- Ben Taylor, Global Climate Change and Sustainability Services Strategy Partner, EY London
- Kate Wilkinson, Senior Product Manager, Full Fact
The Advisory Board membership is evolving and subject to change.
The Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability and the Psychometrics Centre are partnering with Mendoza College of Business, the Center for Accounting Research & Education, the University of Zurich and the Journal of Financial Reporting.
Social media and financial news manipulation research
17:00, 2 April 2023
Professor Shimon Kogan and Professor Marina Niessner
Professors Shimon Kogan and Marina Niessner from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School discuss their research regarding social media and financial news manipulation
Wilful ignorance, delusion-like beliefs, and conspiracy theories
19:00-20:30, 27 January 2022
Dr Joseph Pierre, MD
Health Sciences Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
The use and efficacy of propaganda
12:00-13:00, 25 February 2022
Stephen Jolly
Professeur Agrégé de Géopolitique at Rennes School of Business, Fellow Commoner of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and former senior British Defence official
The process and impact of media fact-checking
12:00-13:00, 24 March 2022
Kate Wilkinson
Deputy chief editor at Africa Check
Business risk of disinformation
19:00-20:00, 28 April 2022
Matt Gorham
Senior Fellow, Cyber & Privacy Innovation Institute, PwC US
Disinformation for profit: the dark business behind disinformation
19:00-20:00, 23 May 2022
Dr Emma Briant
Associate Researcher in the Human Rights Program at Bard College and research affiliate of the Cambridge Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability
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