The Encryption Debate: Disinformation and Extreme Speech on WhatsApp, Telegram and Global Messaging Apps

Workshop organized by Prof. Dr. Sahana Udupa (CAS Research Group/LMU).

Online extreme speech and disinformation have emerged as major problems for democratic and transitional societies worldwide. In the complex mix of factors that shape extreme speech ecosystems, encrypted instant messaging services such as WhatsApp and Telegram constitute a unique constellation. While encryption is commonly held accountable for conditions of evasion, its potentiality to inspire intimacy and trust is no less significant, as is the way it works in tandem with the closed communication architecture of messaging services to enable intrusive human networks around extreme speech. This symposium will bring together scholars, policy experts, and factcheckers to explore the vast reach and impacts of encrypted messaging services.

The event will feature the launch of a new policy report and a curtain raiser to the upcoming volume, "WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption and Extreme Speech" (Spring 2025, New York University).

Participants are: Anmol Alphonso (Boom Live/CAS Fellow), Sergio Barbosa (Geneva/CAS Fellow), Joseph Bullock (UN Peacekeeping), Ruchira Chaturvedi (Indian National Congress), Osho Sanjay Chhel (MindShare), Courtney Cooper (WhatsApp), Jakob Johan Demant (Copenhagen), Kiran Garimella (Rutgers University/CAS Fellow), Katharina Goede (HateAid), Elonnai Hickok (Policy Expert/CAS Fellow), Ruth Mari-Moon (Louisiana State University), Daniel Madrid-Morales (Sheffield), Naomi Miyashita (UN Peacekeeping), David Nemer (University of Virginia/CAS Fellow), Martin Riedl (University of Tennessee/CAS Fellow), Yotam Shmargad (Arizona University), Carolina Parreiras Silva (Sao Paulo), Tarunima Prabhakar (Misinformation Combat Alliance), Marcelo Alves Dos Santos Junior (PUC Rio), Kim Schumann (Cologne), Joseph Walther (UCSB), Herman Wasserman (Stellenbosch/CAS Fellow), Taina Nalon Xavier (Aos Fatos).

The workshop is part of the CAS Research Group “Below the Radar? Messaging Apps, Encryption and the Enticement of Extreme Speech”.

Workshop Program (PDF, 215 KB)