In 2019, disinformation was named the word of the year by NPR. Disinformation is not a new word – it is a word that has been used to describe malignancies that contaminate public discourse for years. But over the past couple of years, it has stepped into the spotlight – in fact, it is 10 times as common in media headlines as it was 5 years ago. That rise suggests a basic shift in focus. This WIT.Connect will tackle the plague of deceptive information on the Internet as well as the organized campaigns that are spreading the infection.

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Speakers

Lisa Kaplan
Founder of Alethea Group
linkedin.com/in/lisa-kaplan-77162a23/

Lisa Kaplan founded Alethea Group to help organizations navigate the new digital reality and protect themselves against disinformation. Kaplan served as digital director for Senator Angus King’s reelection campaign in 2018, where she designed and executed a proactive and defensive digital strategy to identify, understand, and respond to disinformation campaigns. She is among the few people who can share firsthand experience from the campaign trail. She previously worked as a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to the U.S. Department of State, and served as an aide in the United States Senate.

Kaplan has briefed members of Congress and their staffs, advised senior U.S. Government and NATO-allied officials, and facilitated conversations between EU/G-7 partner nations on threats stemming from disinformation. She writes for the Brookings Institution and Lawfare on countering disinformation and protecting democratic institutions. She is widely featured in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, CBC, Axios, the Daily Beast, and MSNBC.

A Maine native, Kaplan lives in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Colby College.