The civil society in the age of social media

On 9th October 2017 in the Public Library of the capital city of Warsaw a conference was held regard the civil society in the era of social media. The event was organized by the IICSand our partners for the event were: the Public Library of the capital city of Warsaw and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Poland. The conference was a platform for an in-depth debate and analysis regarding the impact of social media, fake news, Internet and social media hate on public life, democracy, politics and civil society – from both, global and Polish perspectives.

The conference was divided into three separate sessions: introductory session, discussion panel dedicated to a more global perspective and another discussion panel wholly dedicated to Poland.

Our renowned guests for the event included: Robert Kroplewski (legal advisor, Ministry od Administration and Digitization), Martin Stysiak (spokesperson of the Office of Electronic Communications), Jacek Safuta (director of the European Parliament Representation in Poland), and dr Paweł Kuczma, (WDIiB University of Warsaw) – all presenting speeches in the first introductory panel.

The first discussion panel was dedicated to a global perspective and included speeches by: Konrad Piasecki (TV and radio journalist), Agnieszka Gozdyra (Polsat News journalist), Prof. Wawrzyniec Konarski (Akademia Finansów i Biznesu Vistula, Jagiellonian Univeristy),Jakub Turowski (Head of Public Policy for Poland & Baltics at Facebook), Grzegorz Szczepański (CEO at Hill+Knowlton Strategies Poland) and general Krzysztof Bondaryk (former secretary of state at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration).

The second discussion panel was dedicated to Poland. Our guests for this part of the debate included: Konrad Ciesiołkiewicz (Orange Poland), Łukasz Warzecha (DoRzeczy), Beata Biel (TVN Group), Prof. Michał Bilewicz (University of Warsaw), att. Piotr Schramm and .Maciej Orłoś (Telewizja WP).

Following the three sessions, the attendees of the conference all had a chance to ask their question and voice their own concerns in an open discussion – which traditionally, is the last part of most of the IICS’s events.