CATEGORISATION
KEYWORDS
GENERAL OBJECTIVES, RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE
The harms of mis- and disinformation are shared by scholars, practitioners, and more recently, by governments around the world and the United Nations (UN 2022). Many governments are working on or have already introduced regulatory frameworks to combat this issue and prevent societal harms (e.g. EU’s approach considered to be most comprehensive legislative response in fight against disinformation (Peukert 2024; Schlag 2023) while Canada’s approach combines government regulation of online harms with promoting media literacy and working on equipping citizens with tools and skills to critically assess content they are consuming (Government of Canada 2023, 2024). Despite this mis-and disinformation continue to pose significant challenges to governance and democratic processes in the digital age and several international organizations, including UN and the World Economic Forum, have emphasized the potential of disinformation to promote social unrest, undermine electoral systems, and reinforce echo chambers and polarization. Part of the problem is that mis- and disinformation spread through complex online and offline networks by multinational actors (Stepney and Lally 2024). Finally, to date, there is no single “silver bullet” policy instrument that can counter or significantly curb its spread.
Despite burgeoning research on dis- and misinformation from the political science on public trust and democracy, there is still ample debate regarding appropriate policy responses that balance between protecting free speech and introducing regulatory frameworks and other measures (Peukert 2024). The panel aims to foster a comprehensive dialogue on several critical dimensions regarding government responses to mis-and disinformation. First, despite the agreed upon definitions of mis- and disinformation, there is currently a lack of agreement on when government should interfere and what is “awful but lawful” (Hrynyshyn 2024). Second, while social media is the primary source of mis- and disinformation , its origins and dissemination include a combination of online and offline networks (Stepney and Lally 2024). Finally, while AI can play promising role in detecting mis- and disinformation and analyzing the intent behind a particular claim (WEF 2024), there is still ample debate in the scholarly community to determine how well-established definitions of mis-and disinformation can be operationalized for detection purposes.
References
Government of Canada. 2024. Bill C-63. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/
Government of Canada. 2023. Digital Citizen contribution program. https://www.canada.ca/en/
Hrynyshyn, Derek. 2024. The Online Harms Act doesn’t go far enough to protect democracy in Canada. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/
Peukert, Alexander. 2024. “The Regulation of Disinformation: A Critical Appraisal.” Journal of Media Law 16 (1): 1–7.
Schlag, Gabi. 2023. “European Union’s Regulating of Social Media: A Discourse Analysis of the Digital Services Act.” Politics and Governance 11(3): 168-177.
Stepney, Eva S. and Lally Clare. 2024. Disinformation: sources, spread and impact https://post.parliament.uk/
WEF. 2024. Stopping AI disinformation: Protecting truth in the digital world. https://www.weforum.org/
UN. 2022. Countering disinformation for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Report of the Secretary General. Available at https://documents.un.org/doc/
CALL FOR PAPERS
Mis- and disinformation pose significant challenges to governance and democratic processes, as they can promote social unrest, undermine electoral systems, and reinforce polarization (UN 2022). Despite existing efforts of governments and international organizations to combat mis- and disinformation, there is no consensus on the best way for governments to approach the issue while balancing societal harms and freedom of expression. This panel calls for papers that explore government responses to mis- and disinformation. There are no geographical restrictions: we welcome papers examining this issue in various empirical contexts (i.e. across different countries and/or levels of government). Papers should have an empirical component but can employ any research method (or a combination of research methods). We aim to stimulate discussions on the nature of mis- and disinformation, implications for policy, governance, and administration, potential government responses, and societal impacts.
Research questions can explore (but not limited to):
· How can we conceptualize and identify mis-and disinformation in different empirical contexts?
· What are the sources of mis-and disinformation that require government attention? When does mis- and disinformation require government intervention?
· What are the methodological approaches aimed at detecting and analyzing mis- and disinformation?
· How mis- and disinformation narratives are constructed and spread? By whom?
· What interventions at curbing mis- and disinformation are available for governments of different levels?
· What is the reach of mis- and disinformation campaigns?
· How does mis- and disinformation impact public opinion and political processes
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