Global Disinformation in a
Post-Moderation World Symposium
January 22-23, 2026
Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Center for Communication & Public Policy invite you to Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, a two-day symposium that is part of the Roberta Buffett Institute’s 2025–26 event series on Brave New Futures. This symposium is hosted in partnership with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America, and the Polsky Foundation.
The global information environment is undergoing a significant transformation, as major social media platforms and government institutions retreat from their active roles in combating disinformation. Platforms such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok are scaling back centralized moderation and professional fact-checking efforts, even defunding global fact-checking organizations, and increasingly shifting the responsibility for addressing disinformation onto everyday users. At the same time, the US government has shuttered key programs, such as the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, withdrawn funding from regional and independent media outlets that counter propaganda and disinformation, and discontinued support for academic research in this area, signaling a broader institutional disengagement.
These shifts mark the emergence of a “post-moderation” era—one in which individuals and communities must take greater responsibility for identifying, interpreting, and responding to disinformation without the robust gatekeeping of the past. This symposium convenes global experts and practitioners from industry, public policy, academia, and civil society to address four urgent priorities for this new era: sustaining trust and credibility in information flows; strengthening accountability for platforms, governments, and users alike; advancing innovative tools and strategies to counter disinformation; and forging multi-sector collaboration to build resilient information ecosystems worldwide.