Governance of disinformation in digital public spheres

Joint Research Project of the Center for Information Technology, Society, and Law (ITSL) and the fög – Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society at the University of Zurich.

Disinformation has increased in the context of digitalization. New communication channels, first and foremost social media and messenger services such as Whatsapp, Telegram and Signal, enable the exchange and dissemination of information to a large audience. This includes the spread of fake news, whether intentional or not. In Switzerland there is rising concern about the problematic effects of disinformation.

At present there is a patchwork of approaches, rules and instances with regard to disinformation governance. The subject has been approached from either a communication and media studies or a legal perspective, but the two perspectives have never been linked. The goal of our research project is to identify where concrete gaps in regulation and enforcement exist. These findings form the basis for the formulation of governance options with regard to disinformation, which take into account state, organisational and individual measures, and may act as a basis for political and legal measures.