Can you still trust your own online trail? The invisible threads of digital manipulation are so subtle, and yet they have an enormous power. In our new episode of #GlobalPerspectives, we, like #AI and #BigData, re-explore the rules of free opinion formation "Writing and not only distorting our perception, but also endangering our #democracy.

You want to check further information on this topic? Here are some links to dig in deeper:

· EU Digital Services Act
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/08/24/how-europes-new-digital-law-will-change-the-internet

· Today’s world and technology: Key issues
https://www.humanetech.com/key-issues

· Technology and democracy
https://www.humanetech.com/democratic-functioning
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/28/artificial-intelligence-powering-politics-reboot-democracy

· Solutions
https://www.humanetech.com/solutions
https://www.humanetech.com/policymakers

· First closed-door AI Insight Forum in Washington, D.C. on 13.9.2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/technology/silicon-valley-ai-washington-schumer.html
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/13/23872478/ai-tech-regulation-leaders-insight-forum

Since the COVID-pandemic and Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, global fault lines have deepened. System rivalry is becoming a buzzword and Africa seems to be in the center of it.

With the Russia-Africa Summit, which took place recently in St. Petersburg, the upcoming BRICS Summit in August in Johannesburg, and the Unite Nations Future Summit next year in New York there is a lot of discussion but also speculation in the international community about a new international order or a new world. While there is not necessarily alignment between and within BRICS and the states of the global south on how a new international system should be structured there is common push for a reform of the global governance intuitions.

What role should Africa and Europe play to respond to challenges and opportunities of advancing the international rules-based system in a shifting geopolitical context?

To that end Hanns Bühler from our Hanns Seidel Foundation office in South Africa talks to African and European scholars:

-          Dr. Jakkie Cilliers, Head of the African Futures and Innovation Team at African Institute for Security Studies headquartered in Pretoria

and

-          Dr. Stefan Mair, Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Executive Chairman of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP)

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reactions on the African continent were and still are divided. Africa remains the voting block with the most abstentions at the UN-resolutions on the war.

Although being a minor economical player compared to the USA, China, or the EU, it seems that Russia is exercising an outsized degree of political influence across some parts of Africa. One key instrument of Russia’s engagement on the continent is the Wagner Group - Yevgeny Prigozhins private military company which is undermining democratic progresses, stability, as well as Western interests. How influential is Russia on the African continent? What are Wagner’s prospects and objectives in Africa after the mutiny? And what should African states and international partners do to enhance economic progress and stability?

With:

Julia Stanyard, Thierry Vircoulon, Julian Rademeyer, “The Grey Zone. Russia’s military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa”, Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime

Report:
https://bit.ly/3qAs8jA

Executive Summary:
https://bit.ly/44igkAl

and

Priyal Singh, “Russia-Africa relations in an age of renewed great power competition”, Institute for Security Studies

Report:
https://bit.ly/3OJYws2

Executive Summary:
https://bit.ly/47CVyhx