Dr Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

He is also Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford. He was previously Director of Research at the Reuters Institute and and Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics.

His work focuses on changes in the news media, on political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. He has done extensive research on journalism, American politics, and various forms of activism, and a significant amount of comparative work in Western Europe and beyond.

Recent books include The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy (2010, edited with David Levy), Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns (2012), and Political Journalism in Transition: Western Europe in a Comparative Perspective (2014, edited with Raymond Kuhn).

Julie Owono is a Lawyer and the Executive Director of Internet Without Borders, an organization defending Human Rights online, and an open Internet for all. At the intersection of Technology, business, and Human rights, her work focuses on building bridges and creating channels of collaboration between various actors of the digital space, including civil society, tech communities and governments, to foster the development of an Internet that benefits everyone, all over the world. She often speaks publicly on issues related to network disruptions, the impact of connectivity on societies, privacy, and digital inclusion. Her writing has appeared in Quartz, Al Jazeera, among others. She is a regular commentator on international news channels, including France 24 and BBC World.

Elodie Vialle is the Head of the Journalism and Technology Desk at Reporters without Borders. She reports on new threats on journalism in a digital world, such as disinformation and online harassment against journalists. Elodie is a Lecturer at leading French journalism graduate schools and have been a digital and editorial consultant for media outlets around the world, such as in Haiti. Elodie has been a reporter for Usbek & Rica, french review focused on exploring the future and the Editor-in-chief of an online media dedicated to social innovation cofounded by former Director of French newspaper Le Monde, Jean-Marie Colombani. She has been a columnist at National french radio France Inter and began as a TV journalist (BFMTV).

Director of the Visual Social Media Lab (VSML), which brings together researchers from academia and industry interested in better understanding the role of social media images. Since working closely with The Guardian in 2011 to better understand the role of rumours on Twitter at the height of the UK summer riots, her work has embraced data journalistic efforts. She has contributed to the Data Journalism Handbook and is a fellow recipient of an inaugural Data Journalism Award (2012) for the interactive visualisation tracking riot rumours. Other high-profile work has included a VSML rapid response report on the viral images of Alan Kurdi, the three-year old refugee boy who washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015. Current work includes a number of projects on visual mis- and disinformation with First Draft. Farida is Professor of Digital Media at the Manchester School of Art and sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Information and Entertainment (2016-2019), having previously served on the Global Agenda Council for Social Media (2013-2015). She is also a Director at Open Data Manchester, a thriving open data community in the North West.

Franak Viačorka works as the consultant for U.S. Agency for Global Media, U.S. federal agency supervising U.S. International broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. His focus is Russian disinformation, and he helps USAGM to enhance its operation in Europe and Central Asia. Recently he published research on Kremlin-backed Media, think-tanks, and NGO. He has served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense.

He concurrently works as the Creative Director of RFE/RL Belarus service. For many years he led the digital team and co-authored multiple award-winning multimedia projects, documentaries, and feature films. He is also the Vice President of the Digital Communication Network, global not-for-profit association connecting professionals of the digital age from a variety of backgrounds, in order to generate ideas, tools, and products for media outlets, civil society organizations, businesses, and public authorities.

After completing her PhD in Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego, Joan Donovan was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, where she researched white supremacists’ use of DNA ancestry tests, social movements, and technology. For several years, Joan has conducted action research with different networked social movements in order to map and improve communication infrastructures. At Data and Society, she is the project lead on media manipulation.

Adam S. Hickey is a Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) of the National Security Division (NSD) at the Department of Justice (DOJ). He oversees the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES), including the FARA Registration Unit, and the Foreign Investment Review Staff. As the DAAG for National Asset Protection, he manages NSD’s efforts to combat national security threats to the private sector from computer intrusions and attacks, economic espionage, proliferation, malign foreign influence, and through foreign investment. Mr. Hickey also represents DOJ on interagency policy committees concerning cybersecurity. From 2013 to 2015, he was the Acting Deputy Chief for Cyber in CES and established NSD’s cyber program, supervising criminal investigations of foreign state actors for cyber activity affecting the private sector and critical infrastructure.

Previously, Mr. Hickey was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, where he served as the Deputy Chief of Appeals. There he focused on national security cases involving terrorism and international drug and arms trafficking. Prior to joining DOJ in 2007, Mr. Hickey clerked for the Hon. Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the Hon. Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Hickey also practiced civil litigation and white collar defense in Manhattan. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

Phoebe Arnold is First Draft's International Projects Co-ordinator and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She facilitates collaborative verification projects to tackle misinformation during elections around the world. Previously she was Head of Communications at Full Fact, the UK's leading independent fact-checking organisation, and was an Advisory Board member of the International Fact-Checking Network.

Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, medical doctor and author. She is an expert in health and science communication with a focus on how misinformation fuels epidemics. She trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and served as an officer in the U.S. government’s Epidemic Intelligence Service where she investigated epidemics in maximum security prisons, American Indian reservations and border towns. Yasmin studied journalism at the University of Toronto and worked as a staff writer for the Dallas Morning News and a medical analyst for CNN. In 2017 she was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize for breaking news reporting for coverage of a mass shooting.

Her first book, The Impatient Dr. Lange, is a biography of her mentor, an AIDS scientist, who was searching for a cure for HIV. He was killed on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Her second book, Debunked!, dissects medical myths and pseudoscience.

Stephanie Snyder is an engagement consultant for Hearken, a company that helps over 100 news organizations around the world listen to their audiences. Before joining Hearken, Stephanie’s career in local journalism spanned newsrooms ranging from for-profit and nonprofit startups to traditional daily newspapers, where she gradually shifted from multimedia reporting to a focus on audience development and community engagement through public-powered journalism, events, social media and finding creative ways to connect with readers.