Pyatt: Democracies need tools to counter disinformation

Modern democracies need tools and tactics to counter disinformation campaigns organized by state and non-state actors, US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt said on Monday, during an event organized by the Atlantic Council, together with the US Embassy to Greece and Greek think tank diaNEOsis.

“While I believe that we can and should employ technological tools to make our democracies work better and to communicate more broadly, we also have to grapple with managing the firehose of information that these tools can produce,” he said.

“Despite the challenges, I am certain that freedom of expression and speech will remain a bedrock of our democratic societies. It is one of the values that bind us together.”

According to the organizers, the event, titled DisinfoWeek, aimed to “buttress governmental efforts, civil society groups, investigative journalists, think tanks, and tech platforms are also developing tools and tactics for countering and exposing disinformation narratives.”