Debate team wins novice championship trophy with plan to fight disinformation on social media

Gallaudet University debate team members Hiruni Hewapathiranage-Mayadunne and Nicole Hicks claimed the novice championship trophy at the Transatlantic Dialogues for Future Leaders held March 1. The competition, held at MSU-Denver, is part of a prestigious annual series of events that brings together top students from U.S. and European universities to discuss pressing issues. 

This achievement marks a remarkable debut for the Gallaudet students, as they became the first newcomers in the debate team’s five-year history to win a championship in their inaugural policy debate tournament. In debate, the term “novice” refers to someone in their first year of competition. Hicks, a junior, and Hewapathiranage-Mayadunne, a freshman, placed 4th and 5th place respectively in the novice speaker category.

There were more than 70 participants in the event, which drew students from many esteemed universities, including George Washington University, the Air Force Academy, Rutgers University, and the University of San Francisco. Teams were asked to present and defend policy proposals addressing the question: “Which institutions, public or private, should hold primary responsibility in preparing people to be on the lookout for misinformation and disinformation?”

Hewapathiranage-Mayadunne and Hicks offered an approach — designed to foster healthy skepticism, promote accuracy, and safeguard free speech — that incentivized social networking companies to implement community notes. “To make our proposal more feasible, we designed it for quick implementation. This involved incorporating details from other major platforms with similar initiatives (e.g., X and its Community Notes),” Hewapathiranage-Mayadunne explains. “The judges were particularly drawn to the idea that such a policy could be enacted as soon as tomorrow, producing immediate short-term effects.”

As part of the Transatlantic Dialogues, Hewapathiranage-Mayadunne and Hicks were mentored by Chevalier Pierre-Olivier Goujon from Ecole de Guerre, France’s premier military education institute. “The guidance from our mentor stood out as incredibly helpful in our process of writing this proposal. The expertise from all of the mentors was invaluable, and we’re so grateful for the opportunity we had to learn and grow as debaters,” Hicks says.

In addition to providing mentorship for participants, Ecole de Guerre will host the final tournament in the 2025 series in Paris in June. There is also an online tournament being held this month by George Washington University.