The Internet Lie Machine

Today, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Co-founder of The Archewell Foundation, joined a critical dialogue at RE:WIRED, a virtual gathering for world-renowned technology experts, scientists, and creatives.  As part of a panel titled “The Internet Lie Machine,” The Duke was in conversation with Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change, Renée DiResta, Technical Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, and Steven Levy, Editor-at-Large at WIRED. Together, the group had an honest and compelling discussion about what lies on the internet do to our communities, democracies, societies, the natural world, and ourselves. 

In an era when social media algorithms reward shock value over reality, media sensationalism runs rampant, and misinformation blurs the line between fact and fiction, Prince Harry and Rashad — who both serve on the  Aspen Institute Commission on Information Disorder —  highlighted the toll they’ve seen these systems take on the world and outlined steps that can be taken across government, industry, and civil society to repair the digital world. DiResta, who The Duke worked with last year for a special series examining the state of our digital world, gave insight into the rise of digital propaganda and how misinformation propagates and spreads across every waking moment of our lives. 

Together, the panel acknowledged the challenge our global community has experienced  and pointed to suggestions for how we can move forward into a new era of truth.

We’ve been led to believe that this [misinformation] challenge is too big to solve. What I’ve learned over the last six months, as part of the Aspen Commission, is that simply isn’t true.

Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex