Starting this Thursday, Granada will host the ninth edition of Talking About Twitter, the largest event in the world dedicated to this social network. International experts in interaction and data analysis, and some of the most influential profiles on the blue bird platform, such as the former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza, will attend the congress organized by the newspaper ‘Ideal’ over two days. Aguirre, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, or the El Chiringuito de Jugones team.
The event is consolidated as a “meeting point for reflection, study and entertainment” around the social network, as pointed out by the director of ‘Ideal’, Eduardo Peralta. More than 3,000 people followed the live stream on Twitter and made #TATGranada21 trend in Spain during the morning.
Throughout its history, Talking About Twitter has brought together personalities such as the Nobel Prize winner in Economics Joseph Stiglitz, the CEO of Twitter until 2015, Dick Costolo, and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. «Ideal is a media that goes beyond the borders of Granada thanks to its web edition, but at the same time we are attached to the land, and this event, which has the support of Vocento, is a magnificent opportunity to put Granada in the showcase », stated Peralta.
Among the highlights of the first day of #TATGranada21 was the intervention of the former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre. In an interview with the deputy director of ‘Ideal’, Quico Chirino, he defended naturalness on the networks and expression without taking into account political correctness: “I don’t speak to be liked, I speak to say what I think.” He said he was against account closures, for example to former US President Donald Trump or Vox: “It is a political party with which I disagree, but there are many more things that unite me than those that separate me.”
Against misinformation
The director of social networks of the European Commission, Krisztina Stump, was in charge of inaugurating #TATGranada21, dedicated to the progressive return to normality. Before half a thousand attendees at the Granada Science Park, Stump warned Twitter users about for-profit disinformation campaigns and their relationship with the pandemic, and proposed measures to fight this phenomenon.
Misleading content on social networks is gaining more and more weight. The lie, said the Commission’s communications expert, has become a way to obtain income. The European Commission has been working against ‘fake news’ since 2018 and, as a result of the pandemic, intends to promote a framework of tools and regulations against the spread of false information.
The former president of the Community of Madrid and the Senate, Esperanza Aguirre, interviewed during the Talking About Twitter sessions.
Alfredo Aguilar
The UN has also focused on contaminated information. Constella Intelligence’s Digital Intelligence specialist Jonathan Nelson announced at #TATGranada21 the report prepared for the international organization about the dissemination of manipulated data on covid-19. «We see that this evolves into a distrust towards the institutions of truth. “If neither the experts nor the scientific communities nor the traditional media have confidence in establishing the truth, it can be very dangerous,” he noted.
Positively, the director of the Americas at Human Rights Watch defended the role of social networks in the defense of human rights, and referred to freedom of expression: “Sometimes open governments also limit freedom of expression by have too broad legislation.
The director of Public Policies, Government Relations and Philanthropy of Twitter Spain, Camino Rojo, closed the morning session of the opening day of the ninth edition of Talking About Twitter (#TATGranada21) detailing how the social network acted to confront misinformation, in addition to carrying out public service work, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. “As the world went into lockdown and silence dominated the streets, Twitter became a reference place for information related to Covid-19,” she said in a video conference.
Health communicators Miguel Ángel Cámara, Joan Carles March, Gorka Orive, José Luis Jiménez and Miguel Marcos debated among themselves and answered questions from attendees about the challenges and opportunities for the communication of scientific knowledge during the pandemic, especially in the environment. hostility caused on many occasions by deniers and conspiracy theorists.
The most powerful medium
Gastronomy, led by VOCENTO, was also present on Talking About Twitter. The communications director of Vocento Gastronomía, Madrid Fusión and San Sebastián Gastronomika, Félix Rivadulla, moderated the debate on social networks and food. Twitter is, said Rivadulla, “the most powerful medium” for gastronomic dissemination. He moderated the debate between gastronomic critics Alberto Luchini and Alberto Granados and the vice president of the European Foundation for Innovation, Juan Francisco Delgado.
In the first session of Talking About Twitter there was also room for humor, with the head of the Scientific Culture Unit of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Emilio J. García. Through surveys on Twitter, he organized a real-time trivia with the public, dismantling scientific myths and answering some of humanity’s great questions: “The most honest answer is ‘I don’t know,’ and it is probably the most correct.” .
With Edgar de León, co-founder of the company Guud TV, attendees at #TATGranada21 verified the possibilities of the social network beyond traditional conversation. The Madrid company offers a battery of tools that facilitate interaction between users and brands, through games, narrations, automatic responses or personalized videos.
This Friday, Talking About Twitter will have the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, the PP MEP Leopoldo López Gil -father of the Venezuelan activist-, the ‘Chiringuito de Jugones’ team, the presenter Manu Sánchez and the debate between deputies José Antonio Rodríguez Salas and Macarena Olona.