Health misinformation and freedom of expression: considerations for policymakers

Abstract

Health misinformation, most visibly following the COVID-19 infodemic, is an urgent threat that hinders the success of public health policies. It likely contributed, and will continue to contribute, to avoidable deaths. Policymakers around the world are being pushed to tackle this problem. Legislative acts have been rolled out or announced in many countries and at the European Union level. The goal of this paper is not to review particular legislative initiatives, or to assess the impact and efficacy of measures implemented by digital intermediaries, but to reflect on the high constitutional and ethical stakes involved in tackling health misinformation through speech regulation. Our findings suggest that solutions focused on regulating speech are likely to encounter significant constraints, as policymakers grasp with the limitations imposed by freedom of expression and ethical considerations. Solutions focused on empowering individuals – such as media literacy initiatives, fact-checking or credibility labels – are one way to avoid such hurdles.

Source Credibility Labels and Other Nudging Interventions in the Context of Online Health Misinformation: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Countering online health misinformation became an urgent imperative, but doing so usually involves some form of speech regulation, censure, and truth-monitoring (Marecos et al 2023), an arduous equilibrium between freedom of speech and protection from false speech (Marecos and de Abreu Duarte 2022). Nevertheless, social media platforms adopted and enforced stricter content rules, from labeling to nudging, blocking monetization on specific topics and outright erasing and banning content and accounts (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2022).…”