We announced in March that the next MozFest will be held in Amsterdam in March 2021.

Since then, we’ve watched our allies across the event ecosystem cancel, postpone, or restructure their events due to Covid 19. Questions about MozFest’s offering for 2021 have been heavy on our minds:

• How can we use this time to be good online citizens while supporting our community?
• How can we plan a festival for our allies, friends, and partners to thrive and stay safe?

At Mozilla, we work in the open and want to be transparent about how we are planning for the festival during this time of uncertainty.

Here’s what we can share with you:

1. We still intend to host a physical event in Amsterdam in March 2021, but will monitor how easy or safe it will be to travel during that time. Rest assured, we will be working closely with local health and safety guidelines to keep everyone safe. This might mean that it’s a local event in person, and a virtual event for others.
2. We’re wrestling with how to open our call for proposals when we don't yet know how much of our event will need to be online. The entire team is working hard to evolve with the times and reimagine what a virtual event could be.
3. MozFest is committed to racial justice. We stand for people all over the world and we pledge to offer space for difficult conversations, raising up typically marginalized voices in the tech community, and learning together. Discrimination and prejudice of any kind will not ever be accepted at the festival. The killing of George Floyd and the subsequent voices rising in protest, underscore the racial inequality present in our world today. In honor of all people fighting for equality, we’ll be taking extra steps to ensure MozFest remains a safe and welcoming place for everyone.

These events also remind us that online mis/disinformation adds to the general feeling of uncertainty we are all feeling. It targets our feelings and emotions and pushes content on us that is false or misleading. As we’ve seen with the events of the past weeks, this is not only dangerous for the health of our internet, it “points people in harmful directions and chips away at our democratic fabric.”

In this time of uncertainty, it’s important to stand together, and take action. Below, you’ll find a collection of resources you can use today to begin identifying one of the issues on social media: mis/disinformation in your work and personal life. If we all take action, we’ll see positive change towards certainty and trust online.

TAKE ACTION: Your Mis/Disinformation Toolbox

There are many ways that you can spot both misinformation (false information shared accidentally) and disinformation (false information shared purposefully). Take action today by using the resources and tools below.

1. Watch The Future of Disinformation, a panel discussion from MozFest 2019. And mark down June 30 in your calendar — Mozilla will be hosting a virtual panel about the ways disinformation is intersecting with the coronavirus pandemic. Details will be published soon on our blog.
2. Get Your Facts Right with Hackastory News. While this tool was created for journalists, anyone can use this tool to help them think critically about information. (Note: While these tools may be useful for verification, Mozilla doesn't necessarily endorse them outside of that context.)
3. Play “Choose Your Own Fake News”, a web-based game exploring how disinformation spreads across East Africa. The premise: disinformation is a chronic problem everywhere, intersecting with everything from employment to public health to real-world violence. This interactive game is created by Pollicy, a Mozilla Creative Media Awards winner.

Want more? Dig deeper here. Have something to add to the list? Let us know by tweeting at @mozillafestival.