The European approach to online disinformation: geopolitical and regulatory dissonance

Abstract

The COVID-19 health crisis and the invasion of Ukraine have placed disinformation in the focus of European policies. Our aim is to analyze the emerging European policy on counter-disinformation practices and regulations. To do this, we examine developing European Union (EU) strategy, against different forms of fake news, from a multidisciplinary approach that combines Journalism and Geopolitics. Our methodology is based on the critical analysis of documents generated by the EU on disinformation from 2018 to 2022, including reports, communications, statements and other legislative texts. Our findings suggest that the EU’s policy against disinformation is based on two opposing logics that coexist and compete. The first is securitization, which understands this problem as a threat to democracy that legitimizes ‘exceptional decision-making’ from a hard power perspective. The second is based on the self-regulation and voluntarism of digital platforms with a clear orientation towards soft law and minimal intervention. The recent adoption of the Digital Services Act and the stronger regulation of online platforms do not replace this logic, since this legislation adopts a “co-regulatory framework”. The coexistence of these two logics generates internal contradictions and dissonance that can determine the future of European policies on this important topic and its chances of success.