European Capital of Democracy: Truth, Lies & Democracy Game Jam
Fake news is a threat to democracy. Political disinformation threatens the foundations of democracy as it decreases faith and confidence in elections. Democracy is at stake, when fake news reduces belief in professional journalistic work, erodes trust in government and leads to an increasing general mistrust within society. However, there is one very big community, often overlooked in the political arena, that knows its way around the online landscapes very well. And that is the gaming community. Europe has 4,900 game studios, 200 distributors, and over 386M players, with 50% of the population aged 6 to 64 playing video games. Digital games can promote European values and foster democracy, highlighting the importance of interactive education programs. Creating video games can empower new generations to adapt our democracies to evolving cultural and political scenarios.
In May 2024, the European Capital of Democracy launched Truth, Lies & Democracy, a two-day game jam. It targets the gaming community, civil society, and international organisations, focusing on technical knowledge and topics like democratic decision-making, disinformation, deep fakes, privacy, and new technologies. The participants of game jam worked tirelessly for three days, developing video games, that combat fake news, aim to strengthen democracy, and are available to play for everybody.
All results were showcased and publicly presented, remaining online and accessible to everyone all teams have been offered access to partners offering advice on communicating, developing and potentially launching games based on the results. Truth, Lies & Democracy will be a central element of Democracy Years in the upcoming title-holding cities, startin with the City of Vienna in 2025. In the following editions, we aim to increase the scale and impact of the event itself and find strong partners for exploiting the results. Following the results of the European Elections, a special focus might be put on mobile gaming and young audiences, to raise awareness and build capacities via widely used communication and information channels. Besides connecting the European gaming community to the topic of raising awareness (and possibly countering) mal-, mis- and disinformation, the most promising ideas originating from the live events can be developed into educational games and distributed via partners and/or educational institutions.