Defending the Civic Body from False Information Online

Abstract

We have established that false information online harms the civic body, driven by the economics of emotion and the politics of emotion. What should be done about this? Multi-stakeholder solutions have been proffered by various countries’ governmental inquiries into disinformation and fake news, and by supranational bodies including the United Nations, European Union and Commonwealth. This chapter assesses seven solution areas: namely, (1) coercive and non-coercive government action, (2) cybersecurity, (3) digital intermediaries/platforms, (4) advertisers, (5) professional political persuaders and public relations, (6) media organisations and (7) education. As well as being intrinsically difficult areas to solve individually, let alone in concert, the chapter concludes that such solutions merely tinker at the edges as they do not address a fundamental incubator for false information online: namely, the business model for social media platforms built on the economics of emotion.