Fireside chat with Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications

Watch the replay of the event.

The Paris School of International Affairs is honored to welcome Melissa Fleming, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, for a fireside chat with Beatriz Botero Arcila, Assistant Professor at Sciences Po Law School.

As rapid technological change reshapes our societies, it brings both major opportunities and serious risks. Democracies and civil societies face growing pressure from disinformation and hate speech and online harms are taking a toll on mental health and human rights. At the same time, citizens’ data and privacy are increasingly exposed, which seems to be the effect of the concentration of power within a small number of big tech firms and only modest regulation of them in key countries. In response, the UN Department of Global Communications has developed the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity, a blueprint to help build healthier information ecosystems that protect choice, freedom, privacy, and safety for all. 

Melissa Fleming discusess how the UN is working to advance information integrity, from the responsibilities of the tech sector for safe designs, to the need for regulation and the role of media and civil society in strengthening trust and resilience. She also speaks how a new UN initiatives will address the opportunities, risks and impacts of AI.