About

During the years, the conference "Emerging Trends in Social Media" has brought together leading experts, researchers and professionals from various fields including academia, government, military and industry to discuss the social media landscape of today. Discussions have ranged from how social media affects us as users, how it’s being abused by adversarial actors as well as how it can be used to counter malicious practices.

Last year the conference addressed the emerging field of artificial intelligence (AI) and its relationship with social media. AI is not surprisingly going to be a big theme in this year’s conference as well focusing on how it affects the content we view on social media.

The introductory part of the conference will focus on digital governance as well as the power and future of the social media platforms. The platforms continue to have a big impact in our lives and as of May 2024, more than half of the world’s population use social media. With AI-generated content on social media the issues of regulation and power is more relevant than ever.

AI will be the main topic of two of the panels in this years’ conference. One of them will discuss the impact of AI-generated material, such as deep-fakes and AI-influencers, on the content we view on social media. In the second AI-panel, the focus will be on how the technology can be used for the purposes of improving our strategic communications. Discussions will be held about what tools to use as well as potential limitations and risks with using AI in strategic communications.

Furthermore, the conference will dig into the future of TikTok. Being one of the world’s fastest growing social media platforms it has fuelled a lot of debate during the last couple of years concerning its ownership. In India, the platform is banned for users and in the United States a similar outcome might take place. The panel will view TikTok from different perspectives and discuss the risks with using it.

The final part of the conference will look into the future and address the upcoming US election and the risk of hostile disinformation on social media threatening the integrity of the election.

Please also note that on the evening before the conference there will be a side-event were representatives from NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence will present the current workings of the center.

Invites to the conference will be sent out by email in mid-August. If you have not received the invitation until then, express your interest by reaching out to us at [email protected]