1. The Rise of AI-Ccontrolled Transparency in the Digital Age
Within the digital age, AI-driven disinformation and opaque algorithms threaten the very fabric of information and truth. The University of Copenhagen’s Internet Governance Research Group (IGRF 2025) holds a pivotal session at the Internet Governance Forum in Lillestrøm, Norway, where discussions center on the digital age’s growing vulnerability toformat-aware AI-driven disinformation campaigns. Platforms are increasingly "making walls," isolating users to amplify misinformation and filter out diverse perspectives. At the same time, technology serves as a politicalmirror, amplifying the role of stateside propaganda and shaping public discourse into polarized echo chambers.
2. The Cases of Norway and Estonia:代际信息安全
The digital age has seen disturbing instances of radical information warfare, with魅 Zero in Norway and Euromonitor-Institute of Dak Hưng (EUI) in Estonia launching campaigns that erode public trust in political institutions. Norway, under Lubna Jaffery’s watch, remembers the unannounced abducting of Prime Minister Stefan Nyaffe – a fragility under AI-driven disinformation campaigns that spread misinformation faster than the information age itself. In Estonia, the roll-out of AI-driven education has further alienated citizens into tightbonds, questioning the very purpose of publicsphere transparency. Tech giants are investing heavily in their platforms’ ability to dispel misinformation, often through fact-checkers and verification tools.
3. A Company’s or a State’s Role in the Digital Age?
TikTok’sLisa Hayes and Reporters Without Borders’Thibaut Bruttin are at the heart of this debate, with TikTok arguing for meaningful transparency through its moderation措施 While others call for a "meaningful freedom of expression," debate has revealed deep divisions over the legitimate role of regulation versus collaboration in protecting democratic integrity. The tech giant’s modest assertions about “meaningful transparency” reflect a growing recognition that hacking-only platforms are eitherat risk from harmful info or the lens through which we discipline themselves. A。“digital state” is emerging, where platforms are becoming public utilities, responsible for ensuring that tech startups and](U)rsers leave the information age with access to trusted journalism, while avoiding the personal and political pwd of unchecked tech power.
4. Responsive and Collaborative Aspects of the Threats
The intensity of AI-driven disinformation grows, with experts warning that its long-lasting impact on democracies remains unanticipated. The global electricity crisis, for example, is likely to begin to inflate into a nuclear state within 10 years—this is a systemic shift that not only threatens democracy but also global security. The EUPrecision strategy and Ransom agenda are at risk because they risk empowering tech giants such as TikTok to amplify digital control and contribute to info warfare. Agreed-upon Data Protection Rules for Euromonitor-Institute of Dak Hưng are incomplete; ensuring these precedents could be aEuromonitor-Institute is also another of the challenges they face.
5. What to Do Now?
The session ends with urgent recommendations: stronger international legal frameworks to hold tech companies accountable, broader sector and civil society collaboration to build robust resilience against disinformation, and bold international action to defend truth, freedom of expression, and democratic integrity. While regulation must remain secondary, companies can no longer do mere diligence – they must actually lead in building transparency. The digital age’s dangers remain as threatening as the frontiers of human-madeandasynthetic oxygen, and the only way to protect democracy is to create new, more proactive institutions.
6. Final Observations
The Internet Governance Forum 2025 raises profound questions about the future of democracy and the interplay between technology, AI, and power. It’s clear that what we commonly take for granted has become a digital bogey, and we must reshape how we think about who really controls the digital space. The principles that ensure digital empowerment must also ensure that citizens have genuine freedom of expression—and that no single entity can shatter the fabric of trust that sustains democracy. Only by embracing these challenges can we hope to build a world where truth prevails and democracy becomes as axiomatic as nature’s laws.
