Policy Solutions for Online Mis/Disinfor

The world has underestimated the impact of disinformation and information operations that exploit the surveillance capitalism model of social media. From the seeding of and experimentation with metanarratives and exploiting its design to spread viral content in 2014, the impact is at three levels: the individual on these platforms, the group they belong to (real-life examples of the Asch conformity studies), and at a macro level - emerging human behavior. This insidious manipulation has led to more than 71% of the world under authoritarian rule, helping elect illiberal leaders democratically. The political, social, and psychological damage caused by the intensive dissemination of online mis/disinformation has been profound, and the problem has gone well beyond platform business models, algorithms, and micro-targeting. We’re now looking at a broad, systemic problem with many moving pieces.

The good news: much has been learned about how to address the problem so we will emphasize the research, policies and regulations that are being tried around the world.  This semester we are paying particular attention to the aftermath of the 2024 election landscape and the strange post-truth environment we find ourselves in. 

The first part of this course will focus on understanding mis/disinformation online. What exactly is it? Why should we care? What are the implications for Democracy? Who is the cast of characters creating mis/disinformation online? After we’ve understood these topics we will examine the fixes being proposed and tried globally. We will consider both the demand and supply side of the problem and the national context shapes the solutions being tried. We will look at the pros and cons of efforts to promote responsible news consumption, enhance media literacy, fact-checking, and new regulations. We will also discuss content moderation, platform liability, disclosure requirements for election advertising, and support for journalism.