PPE in a Time of Pandemic: Social Media, Social Epistemology, and the Pandemic

In many democracies, the conduct of social and political life increasingly takes place online – a tendency that has become even more pronounced under the present regime of shelter-in-place and social distancing orders. In some ways, social media has proved a democratizing resource, allowing disparate (and otherwise isolated) voices access to political discourse and information. But our increasing dependence on social media also comes with distinctive moral and epistemic risks, risks that attend both to individual agents, and to the democratic polities that they comprise.

We invite you to join us for a discussion between Regina Rini, the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Moral and Social Cognition at York University, and Simone Gubler (UNC). In this conversation, Professor Rini will discuss her recent research on social media disinformation and deepfakes, and the threats that they present to democracy, with a special eye to the significance of this research for the present moment. Professor Rini will also discuss moral questions arising from the pandemic, including questions concerning changing norms, and the dangers of adopting dehumanizing attitudes to those we regard as potential vectors of disease, issues which she also takes up in her regular column in the Times Literary Supplement.