Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World
Buffett Symposium
In January 2026, Northwestern University's Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Center for Communication & Public Policy hosted Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, a two-day symposium that is part of the Roberta Buffett Institute's 2025–26 event series on Brave New Futures. This symposium was hosted in partnership with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America, and the Polsky Foundation.
The global information environment is undergoing a significant transformation, as major social media platforms and government institutions retreat from their active roles in combating disinformation. Platforms such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok are scaling back centralized moderation and professional fact-checking efforts, even defunding global fact-checking organizations, and increasingly shifting the responsibility for addressing disinformation onto everyday users. At the same time, the US government has shuttered key programs, such as the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, withdrawn funding from regional and independent media outlets that counter propaganda and disinformation, and discontinued support for academic research in this area, signaling a broader institutional disengagement.
These shifts mark the emergence of a “post-moderation” era—one in which individuals and communities must take greater responsibility for identifying, interpreting, and responding to disinformation without the robust gatekeeping of the past. This symposium convened global experts and practitioners from industry, public policy, academia, and civil society to address four urgent priorities for this new era: sustaining trust and credibility in information flows; strengthening accountability for platforms, governments, and users alike; advancing innovative tools and strategies to counter disinformation; and forging multi-sector collaboration to build resilient information ecosystems worldwide.
Watch the opening plenary
- Ellen McCarthy, Founder and CEO, Trust in Media Cooperative and former US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence & Research
- James Warren, Executive Editor, NewsGuard
- Suzanne Nossel, Lester Crown Nonresident Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy & International Order, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
- Moderator: Leslie Vinjamuri, President and CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Watch the full-day symposium
00:00:00 | Opening Remarks
- Deborah Cohen, Richard W. Leopold Professor of History and Director of Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs
- Erik C. Nisbet, Owen L. Coon Professor of Policy Analysis & Communication and Director of the Center for Communication & Public Policy, School of Communication
00:09:35 | Innovating Resilience to Disinformation
This panel brought together leading voices from psychological science, industry, and fact-checking to explore cutting-edge strategies and innovation for strengthening societies’ resilience against evolving disinformation threats.
- Gordon Pennycook, Associate Professor of Psychology and Dorothy & Ariz Mehta Faculty Leadership Fellow, Cornell University
- Andrew Pel, Head of Campaigns, Moonshot
- Laura Zommer, Co-Founder and CEO, Factchequeado; Founder, LatamChequea
- Moderator: Erik Nisbet, Owen L. Coon Professor of Policy Analysis & Communication, Director of the Center for Communication & Public Policy, School of Communication, Northwestern University
01:40:12 | Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Countering Disinformation
This panel convened leaders representing the global tech industry, journalism, and policy to explore how multi-stakeholder collaboration can collectively address the challenges of disinformation.
- Angie Drobnic Holan, Director of the International Fact-Checking Network, Poynter Institute
- Erin Saltman, Senior Director, Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)
- David Bray, Distinguished Chair of the Accelerator, Stimson Center; Principal/CEO, LDA Ventures, Inc.
- Moderator: Nicholas Diakopoulos, Professor and Director of the Computational Journalism Lab, School of Communication, Northwestern University
03:14:15 | Countering State-Sponsored Disinformation and Ensuring Trustworthy Information Spaces
This panel brought together leaders of populations targeted by state-sponsored disinformation and U.S. foreign policy to discuss approaches to countering such campaigns and to ensure trustworthy information spaces.
- Ellen McCarthy, Chairwoman and CEO, Trust in Media Cooperative; former US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence & Research
- Shih-Hung Lo, Professor, National Chung Cheng University; Chairperson, Taiwan FactCheck Center
- Viktoriia Romaniuk, Deputy Chief Editor, StopFake; Director, Mohyla School of Journalism at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
- Moderator: Olga Kamenchuk, Associate Professor of Instruction and Faculty Affiliate, Center for Communication & Public Policy, School of Communication
04:40:35 | Ensuring Accountability for Disinformation
This panel convened experts in advocacy, research, and industry to discuss mechanisms for ensuring accountability of platforms, publishers, and users.
- Imran Ahmed, CEO, Center for Countering Digital Hate
- Emily Vraga, Don & Carole Larson Professor in Health Communication, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota
- James Warren, Executive Editor, NewsGuard
- Moderator: Priyanka Motaparthy, Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Center for International Human Rights, Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University