A REAL CHALLENGE FOR LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES: “FAKE NEWS” OR DOMESTIC REGULATIONS TO COUNTER FAKE NEWS?

Yıl 2022, Cilt: 39 Sayı: 1, 147 - 184, 06.07.2022

Derya Atakul

https://doi.org/10.55792/anayasayargisi.1141571

Öz

This article aims to identify the greater threat to liberal democracies:
“fake news” or domestic regulations intended to combat “fake news”.
First, it assesses the impact of fake news on elections by analysing the
2016 US Presidential election in which the world faced the modern
version of fake news for the first time and the 2019 EU Parliament
election in which a non-regulatory initiative was launched to challenge
fake news. Then, it evaluates the impact of regulations on free speech
by reviewing liberal democracies’ pioneering regulatory frameworks
intended to combat fake news: French Law no. 2018-1202, Germany’s
Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, and UK’s Online Harms White Paper.
It argues that, while damage to the functioning of democracy caused
by fake news during election periods has not been as great as was
feared, since fake news has several, highly politicised meanings, legal
frameworks tend to over-regulate, which may violate the freedom of
expression according to the case-law of the European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR). The article concludes that enhancing media literacy and
non-regulatory efforts globally would contribute much more to prevent
the impacts of fake news and to protect freedom of expression than
legislative frameworks could, and that adopting regulatory frameworks
to tackle the online dissemination of fake news should be reconsidered.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Fake news, disinformation, freedom of speech, media literacy, non-regulatory efforts

Kaynakça

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