Fighting the ‘Infodemic’: Legal Responses to COVID-19 Disinformation

Abstract

Online disinformation has been on the rise in recent years. A digital outbreak of disinformation has spread around the COVID-19 pandemic, often referred to as an “infodemic.” Since January 2020, digital media have been both the culprits of and antidotes to misinformation. The first months of the pandemic have shown that countering disinformation online has become as important as ensuring much needed medical equipment and supplies for health workers. For many governments around the world, priority COVID-19 actions included measures such as (a) providing guidance to social media companies on taking down contentious pandemic content (e.g., India); (b) establishing special units to combat disinformation (e.g., EU, UK); and (c) criminalizing malicious coronavirus falsehood, including in relation to public health measures. This article explores the short and potential long-term effects of newly passed legislation in various countries directly targeting COVID-19 disinformation on the media, whether traditional or digital. The early actions enacted under the state-of-emergency carve new directions in negotiating the delicate balance between freedom of expression and online censorship, in particular by imposing limitations on access to information and inducing self-restraint in reporting. Based on comparative legal analysis, this article provides a timely discussion of intended and unintended consequences of such legal responses to the “infodemic,” reflecting on a basic set of safeguards needed to preserve trust in online information.

Russian Legislation and Practice on Fake News During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Case Studies

“…There are data that countries across the world implement their steps to counter infodemics (Radu, 2020). Scholars consider cases with reference to social media which the promising practices in different countries (Jamil, Appiah-Adjei, 2020) and underline that fake news breaks the fundamental human rights to reliable information provision (Atabekova 2020).…”

Infodemic as Social Challenge: International, Regional, National Settings

“…As for national level, Roxana Radu mentions that national governments across the continents introduce counter measure to stops the spread of fake news about the COVID 19 and criminalize false data dissemination (Radu , 2020).…”

Review of Michael A. Peters and Tina Besley (Eds.). (2021). Pandemic Education and Viral Politics

“…It is not only researchers who are dealing with information overload but also citizens. Fake news, misinformation and disinformation about Covid-19 are global problems, and new laws have been introduced in Europe, America, Africa and in Middle Eastern countries in an attempt to combat false information (Radu 2020).…”