Truth x lie

The digital age we live in has rapidly and unexpectedly thrown us into a situation where an enormous amount of data is generated daily, transforming into a vast amount of information. This information bombards us from all directions. Its timeliness, accuracy, and trustworthiness have become issues that divide society into often irreconcilable bubbles. Thanks to social networks, blogs, and podcasts, almost anyone can dabble in journalism today, and each of us can become, intentionally or completely unintentionally, a spreader of truths, half-truths, and outright lies.

Our current era is often described as post-factual and post-truth. It is increasingly difficult to discern what is true. Every day, we are bombarded with news and pseudo-news of varying (and often questionable) quality. We face attacks from fraudsters and opportunists, and we are targets of politicians and political party campaigns, with it sometimes being very hard to distinguish between different groups.

What will you take away from the episode?

• In a discussion with both guests, we will dive into the issues of fake news, hoaxes, and fraudulent emails. We will reveal the mechanisms behind their creation and the tactics of those who spread them. We will explain the principles of autonomous or automatic operation of botnets—software agents and internet robots.
• Since InspiRácio is primarily an educational show, we will try to explain how to effectively defend against various manipulative media techniques. How to maintain and develop critical thinking and verify information sources.
• We will discuss how to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff in the world of information. How to pick out what’s essential on the information highway and protect yourself from the clutter of shallowness and superficiality. How to keep your focus on what is valuable, enriching you individually and not manipulating you into a herd mentality. This topic is especially relevant during the peak of the pre-election campaign.
• Those of you watching live will also have the opportunity to ask the guests questions along with me and directly. Looking forward to seeing you!

Who are the guests?

František Vrábel

František Vrábel is the CEO of the Czech company Semantic Visions, which has been providing risk detection services since 2011. Using semantic analysis, it continuously analyzes new content from several thousand websites worldwide in 12 languages. The company can cover 90% of global internet news content in real time. In recent years, the company has also focused on detecting disinformation (especially combating Russian propaganda). After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it began cooperating in this area with the Czech Ministry of Health.

Michal Bláha

Michal Bláha is the recipient of the Personality of the Czech Internet award for 2020 in the Křišťálová lupa poll. He has been active in the internet business environment for nearly 30 years. He co-founded Atlas.cz and many other projects such as MobilJam (mobile marketing), Cinetik (web DVD rental, the Czech Netflix), US startup Vizrea/Webfives (sold to Microsoft), software house Devmasters s. r. o., travel site OnTheRoad.To, classified ads aggregator NoveInzeraty.cz, and customer satisfaction monitoring Feedbando. In recent years, he is best known as the author of the Hlídačstátu.cz project, actively promoting an efficient digitalized state, and also assisting with the setup and promotion of the Digital Czechia concept for the Czech Ministry of the Interior.