In the ITU/UNESCO Broadband study on Balancing Act: Countering digital disinformation while respecting freedom of expression, Prof. Trisha Meyer is the lead author of several chapters mapping and evaluating government and platform responses to disinformation. In this blog post, Prof. Meyer and Clara Hanot (EU Disinfolab) recap their findings on platform responses to the disinfodemic.
The blogpost
- compares how 11 global internet communications companies address disinformation through 7 forms of content and account moderation;
- presents a case study on additional measures taken by Facebook/Instagram, Twitter and Google/YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic;
- argues that internet communication companies are acting as definers, judges and enforcers of freedom of expression on their services;
- concludes that platforms’ responses to the ‘disinfodemic’, in particular the further automation of curation, confirm once again the urgent need for transparent and accountable content moderation policies.
