Tinker, Tailor, Twitter, Lie

Government Disinformation and Freedom of Expression in a Post-Truth Era

Bibliographic Data

ID16764918
AuthorsKatie Pentney (0000-0003-1006-7447, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume22
Issue2
Publication date2022-03-04
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Rights Law Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-7781 • E-ISSN: 1744-1021
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hrlr/ngac009
OpenAlexW4213242515
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited2

The spread of disinformation has received significant attention in recent years, yet little has been paid to government disinformation, and whether governments may violate freedom of expression not only in how they regulate disinformation, but also in how they facilitate, sow and spread it. This article analyses whether and to what extent Article 10 of the ECHR is engaged by government disinformation. It extends the analysis from well-established violations of freedom of expression—overt censorship and withholding information—into novel forms of government interference in the ‘post-truth’ age: false claims of ‘fake news’ levelled at the press and intentional lies about matters of public importance. These latter categories warrant further attention, as governments can cause just as much harm to public discourse and debate by intentionally injecting falsehoods as by censoring truth. A purposive approach to freedom of expression is needed to protect not only the means of expression, but also the ends—vibrant democratic discourse and meaningful public debate

Business · Censorship · Democracy · Disinformation · Freedom of expression · Freedom of the press · Government (linguistics) · Harm · Human rights · Internet privacy · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Social media · Sociology · Terrorism · Warrant · Computer Science · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Freedom of Expression and Defamation · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law

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Open DOIOpen Access