The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) and The London Story (TLS) invite you to join us for a joint launch of our reports dissecting the rise of hate, misinformation, and disinformation after the Pahalgam terror attack and the outbreak of hostilities between India and Pakistan on May 7.

Our panellists from diverse backgrounds with deep regional expertise will examine the evolving tactics of digital warfare in South Asia, assess why social media platforms failed to curb harmful content, and propose actionable strategies to strengthen information integrity.

Panelists

Dr. Ritumbra Manuvie

Dr Manuvie teaches international law at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is the coordinator for Law and Politics education cluster at the University College Groningen. Her research looks at platform regulation, freedom of speech, and shifting space for democracy in digital society. Prior to joining Groningen, she was a Commonwealth scholar at the University of Edinburgh. She has a LLB and LLM degree from Delhi University and National law School of India University, Bangalore. 

She is co-founder, director of diaspora led Human Rights Organisation Foundation the London Story that seeks to promote state and non-state accountability against digital harms. 

Michael Kugelman

Michael Kugelman is a Washington DC-based South Asia analyst and columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. He is the former Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center and a leading specialist on Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan and their relations with the United States. The editor or co-editor of 11 books, he has written for The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and other publications, covering topics ranging from U.S. policy in Afghanistan to terrorism to water, energy, and food security in the region.

Nighat Dad

Nighat Dad is the Executive Director of Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan. She is an accomplished lawyer and a human rights activist, and one of the pioneers campaigning for access to an open internet in Pakistan and globally. She has been actively campaigning and engaging on issues related to internet freedom, women and technology, digital security, and women’s empowerment. Ms. Dad has been named in TIME’s ‘Next Generation Leaders’ List, and has won the Atlantic Council Freedom of Expression Award, and the Human Rights Tulip Award for her work in digital rights and freedom.

Niala Mohammad

Niala Mohammad serves as the Director of Research, Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH). Previously, she held the role of Director of Policy and Strategy at the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and served as a Senior Policy Analyst for South Asia at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Before this role, she served 14-plus years as a multimedia broadcast journalist with the Voice of America covering South Asia.

Moderator

Dr. Akudo McGee

Dr. Akudo McGee serves as the Advocacy and Communication Officer at The London Story. She is responsible for communications and advocacy with stakeholders in the Netherlands. She brings particular expertise on rule of law and autocratic legalism to this work.