True Costs of Misinformation | The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws
Between 2010 and 2022, 80 countries enacted new legislation or amended existing laws in an attempt to curb the spread of misinformation online. This sharp and global adoption of misinformation laws, however, cannot be explained by the sudden emergence of false or misleading information, as these problems have existed for a very long time. Rather, we argue that the global rise in misinformation laws is better explained by the simultaneous occurrence of four facilitating conditions: (1) the popularization of “fake news” by political and media elites, (2) Western influence over global security discourse and policymaking, (3) the desire for governments to control the flow of information, and (4) high-profile revelations around platform governance and harm. Our findings are drawn from a novel data set of legislation passed since 2010 across 177 countries and a systematic literature review of 57 articles.
Strategic Authoritarian Narratives in the Sahel
In recent years, countries in the Sahel region of Africa have faced widespread insecurity and instability. Stretching across the northern tier of sub-Saharan Africa, Sahel countries Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have all experienced a series of military coups and rising levels of right-wing extremism. Poverty, environmental degradation, and competition for scarce resources like uranium, have further exacerbated this situation, creating a volatile mix of factors that have fueled social unrest and enabled the expansion of terrorist groups operating in these countries.
Exporting Autocracy: How Foreign Influence Operations Shape Democratic Attitudes
What impact do foreign authoritarian influence operations (FIOs) have on democracy? By some measures, nearly all the hard-won democratic gains from the previous 35 years had disappeared by 2022 (Varieties of Democracy 2023). Since these declines corresponded with a steep increase in disinformation, numerous scholars argue that FIOs contributed to these democratic setbacks (Diamond 2019; Dobson, Masoud, and Walker 2023). Other research has questioned the evidence of such backsliding (Little and Meng 2024; Arriola, Rakner, and Van de Walle 2023), or claimed more generally that information campaigns have only marginal political effects (Eady, Paskhalis, Zilinsky et al. 2023). Through an examination of democratic attitudes in 15 African countries between 2009 and 2023, we present preliminary but compelling evidence that autocrats export authoritarianism.
Misinformed about Misinformation: On the polarizing discourse on misinformation and its consequences for the field
For almost a decade, the study of misinformation has taken priority among policy circles, political elites, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and the media. Substantial resources have been dedicated to identifying its effects, how and why it spreads, and how to mitigate its harm. Yet, despite these efforts, it can sometimes feel as if the field is no closer to answering basic questions about misinformation’s real-world impacts, such as its effects on elections or links to extremism and radicalization.