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Gendered disinformation is both a sophisticated weapon and a blunt-force tool of hybrid warfare that is being used to silence women. It is a threat to collective security -- and democracies are paying the price.
In this episode of The Swing, host Heather Bakken is joined by three leading experts to unpack one of the most urgent and underexamined threats to democratic participation.
Dr. Janos Botschner is a behavioural scientist and public safety leader. Dr. Mateusz Łabuz is a cybersecurity researcher specializing in AI-driven disinformation and cognitive warfare. And Professor Jennifer Irish is a Principal at Pendulum Group's Geopolitical Strategic Advisory and Lead of the Information Integrity Practice.
The panel examines how AI is supercharging gendered attacks by making them more scalable, more believable, and more damaging. The chilling effect and harm it causes is a fundamental threat to all citizens, communities and society.
Synthetic pornography and coordinated harassment campaigns have real-world consequences: PTSD and mental health impacts that harm well being and productivity, the chilling effect on who chooses to enter politics, public leadership, or journalism, and the permission structures that allow misogyny to proliferate across platforms and cross from the digital world into physical threat.
These experts tackle hard questions: how state and non-state actors are actively exploiting gendered disinformation as a geopolitical tool, where legal frameworks and platform accountability are failing, and what a whole-of-society response actually looks like.
This is not just a conversation about online abuse. It's a conversation about who gets to participate in democracy and who is being systematically pushed out. The call to action is stronger platform accountability, updated criminal codes, digital literacy education, and coordinated institutional support.
Broader Bios:
Prof. Jennifer Irish is a principal at Pendulum's Geopolitical team and the Information Integrity practice lead. She is an accomplished former Canadian diplomat and senior international and national security executive, currently serving as an Associate at University of Ottawa’s Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership, where she directs its security and intelligence programming. Her work advances the understanding, analysis and mitigation of disinformation, misinformation and foreign influence operations.
Dr. Mateusz Łabuz is the head of "International Cybersecurity" project at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH), You can learn more about NCII and 'deep fakes' through his report: Non Consensual Sexualizing Deepfakes - Threats and Recommendations for Legal & Societal Action.
Dr. Janos Botschner is Principal of HumInsight and a Senior Associate with the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance (CSKA). He has presented aspects of this work globally, and continues to be active in this area. Janos and CSKA recently led a major initiative focusing on gendered disinformation in collaboration with Sapper Labs Group, Actua and others. Learn more here: Tackling Online Gendered Disinformation: New Canadian Research and Resources
Special thanks to our audio engineer, Paul MacInnis.
