True Costs of Misinformation| The Global Spread of Misinformation Laws

Abstract

Between 2010 and 2022, 80 countries enacted new legislation or amended existing laws in an attempt to curb the spread of misinformation online. This sharp and global adoption of misinformation laws, however, cannot be explained by the sudden emergence of false or misleading information, as these problems have existed for a very long time. Rather, we argue that the global rise in misinformation laws is better explained by the simultaneous occurrence of four facilitating conditions: (1) the popularization of “fake news” by political and media elites, (2) Western influence over global security discourse and policymaking, (3) the desire for governments to control the flow of information, and (4) high-profile revelations around platform governance and harm. Our findings are drawn from a novel data set of legislation passed since 2010 across 177 countries and a systematic literature review of 57 articles.