Flinders University has launched an innovative new research centre designed to shore up trust in democratic values in an era of disinformation, deep fakes and compromised electoral campaigns.
The Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security and Governance (JBC) is named for a former US Ambassador to Australia, who is patron of the project and will play an ongoing role in its operation and development.
“It will focus on restoring trust and integrity in the digital age,” says Ambassador Bleich, adding that the alliances that built the international liberal world order need to adapt to these new technologies. “Our freedom and our security depend on it.”
While technology holds the promise of universal access to information, it has also emerged as a powerful disruptive force according to Professor Don DeBats, Head of American Studies at Flinders University.
“And the consequences of this have been frightening,” he says.
“It is so easy when there has been rapid technological change for trust to be eroded, for people not to trust one another, to not trust people who are somewhat different from them.
“Our ideological opponents have seen that weakness – and they have acted – and the consequences are disruptive and destructive for democratic societies and the values that we hold.”
Having served in the Obama administration as U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Flinders University recently launched The Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security, and Governance. I previously led the board of California's state universities, as well as leading the State Bar. For three decades, I have been devoted to meeting the needs of those in the neglected middle-class—as a lawyer, teacher, and community leader.
Professor DeBats says it is an opportunity for Flinders to continue to fulfil what it set out to do 50 years ago as a “new and innovative university”. The centre combines strengths in the social sciences with those of technology.
“We have an exciting, creative program that brings together some of the strengths of Flinders University,” Professor DeBats says.
“And we hope that the young people who will take over this relationship between the United States and Australia will benefit from this kind of perspective.”
Because, he says, the ‘problem space’ is not unique to one country or the other, “it is one we share and perhaps there is a ‘solution space’ that we can both share”.
But in order to flourish, not just from a funding perspective, Ambassador Bleich says all stakeholders must become engaged.
“Right now the biggest challenge is not simply for the government to act,” he says, “but for business and the government to act together and offer a positive vision for the future. The public will not trust government or tech until they see everyone at the table together working toward the common good.”
“The best things we have ever built in society – including my home town of Silicon Valley – have not come from just one sector; they’ve come from the public sector and the private sector and the not-for-profit sector and the research sector, all coming together to try and solve a problem.”
Professor DeBats believes the JBC has a good chance of achieving that.
“We need to anticipate change and prepare our society, our people and the children for a changed future so they are not afraid of it but embrace it, enjoy it, and see the opportunity,
not a threat.
“In that confident space they can trust one another and not be divided.”
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