Private messaging platforms have taken the world by storm, with usage growing exponentially across the globe during the pandemic. Today, two out of five people use real-time chat apps like Messenger, Signal, Telegram, WeChat, and WhatsApp to connect, collectively sending hundreds of billions of messages each day. Backed by encryption, these innovations have assumed an important role in empowering ideas and social movements by facilitating trust and solidarity among users. At the same time, so too have private messaging platforms accelerated the spread of hate, misinformation, and violence online thanks to design features that encourage scale, virality, and monetization. Wafa Ben-Hassine, a human rights lawyer and principal at Omidyar Network, joins Washington Post Live to discuss how introducing new rules and incentives can help messaging platforms be more than private, but also safe and trustworthy.

Broad majorities of Americans express deep concern about misinformation online and its corrosive effects on our democracy. With limited tools at their disposal, how can policymakers respond to an existential challenge that pits our national interests against our deeply-held reverence for free speech?

While the vaccines are a great next step in fighting the pandemic, we can’t lower our guard. Not all countries have broad access to vaccination. In the U.S. people that have access to vaccines may not have been  vaccinated, and children may not be vaccinated until much later in the year. Variants of concern will inevitably continue to appear, and we are seeing areas of the world where infections are at their peak and continue to trend up. As we consider travel and move about the world again, how can we remain safe while traveling? The U.S. State Department  warned against travel to about 80% of the world only last month, as many countries continue to contend with surges of the virus. Setting up a testing protocol that is flexible and timely, and keep travelers safe, will be key. Some countries, airports and airlines are already implementing testing measures systematically with success. What does the future of travel look like? We will discuss in this segment.