Public Diplomacy Council of America

First Monday Forum Sept. 12 on Disinformation

Todd Leventhal, who served as Senior Counter-Disinformation Adviser at the State Department’s Global Engagement Center from 2018 to April 2022, will discuss how public diplomacy responds to disinformation on September 12 in a Zoom teleconference beginning at noon Eastern time.

While some view digital authoritarianism and disinformation as primarily a cyber or technological problem, others see this threat to democracy primarily through the lens of the human and societal vulnerabilities that allow false narratives to take hold.

How should the U.S. government respond to the problem of digital authoritarianism and what role do public diplomacy practitioners have to play? How should democratic governments coordinate their domestic and foreign policy responses to digital authoritarianism, and what is the role of public diplomacy?

Leventhal will offer his views and take questions in the hour-long presentation via Zoom teleconferencing. The event is co-sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Council of America and the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.