Harry, 14 more commissioners and three co-chairs will conduct a six-month study on the state of U.S. misinformation and misinformation.
Journalist Katie Couric, president of Color of Change, Rashad Robinson, and Chris Krebs, former director of the U.S. Security and Cybersecurity Agency, are the co-chairs.
“This information crisis undermines confidence in our democratic institutions and directly attacks the foundations of society,” Krebs said in a statement.
This is what Aspen, a leading non-profit organization, wants to examine. The institute announced its Commission on Information Disorders in January with a mandate to develop “public-private responses.”
The commission will begin meeting in April and will hold a series of briefings with external experts.
According to the institute, the Aspen plan calls for an interim report after about 60 days “to conduct a study and frame the problem of information disorder and prioritize the most critical and urgent issues” and then a list of solutions and recommendations applicable in the fall.
The list of commissioners, released Wednesday morning, includes prominent figures such as former Texas Congressman Will Hurd; Sue Gordon, the former director general of national intelligence; and Kathryn Murdoch, co-founder and president of Quadrivium and daughter-in-law of Rupert.
But surely the most prominent name is Prince Harry, who has been in the public eye in recent weeks thanks to his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, sat down with Winfrey and explained their decision to retire from the roles of the British royal family and criticized the British press.
It is likely that his own personal experiences with the media, especially with widespread lies and nonsense about his own life, will report his contributions to the commission.
“As I said, the experience of today’s digital world has flooded us with an avalanche of misinformation, affecting our ability as individuals and societies to think clearly and understand the world we live in,” the Duke of Sussex said. to a statement.
“I think this is a humanitarian issue,” he said, “and as such, it requires a multi-stakeholder response from advocacy voices, members of the media, academic researchers and leaders from both the government and the government. “We look forward to joining this new Aspen commission and look forward to working towards a solution to the information crisis.”
The institute’s press release on Wednesday identified Prince Harry as one of three philanthropic leaders who will be part of the project. The other two are Murdoch, who is married to Rupert Murdoch’s son, James, and Marla Blow, president of the Skoll Foundation.
One week after the interview with Winfrey, Harry and Meghan announced several donations from their Archewell Foundation, including press companies.
His role on the Aspen commission is part-time. It will involve regular meetings, according to the institute. The commission is funded by Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
Krebs said in his statement that the commission strives to have a “diversity of views” and roles, “from elected officials and civic leaders to academic researchers and corporate executives.”