Political Disinformation on the Net and the Risk to Democracy

The essay aims at analyzing the relationship between the changes of political information, disseminated through the net, and the dangers to democracy. In particular, three topics will be addressed: the change of ways of making political information on the net; the new characteristics of political information disseminated on the net and the risk for democracy; the need to combat political disinformation on the net through adequate regulation. In this regard, the paper analyzes the measures adopted in some European countries, such as France, Germany, and Spain, aimed at countering disinformation online and fake news, especially in the field of political information, and the action started by the European Union for this purpose. The measures adopted by some European countries are aimed at: repressing the disinformation and fake news; providing transparency obligations for providers; promoting media literacy programs. Instead, the European Union preferred to resort to self-regulation by providers. In fact, although the European Union can adopt a regulation containing specific obligations for providers, for the moment it has provided for the adoption of a Code of good practice to combat disinformation which is not binding on them. In this regard, the paper analyzes the possible measures that States and European Union could introduce in order to combat the phenomenon of political disinformation able to influence the voters and condition the electoral competitions. Finally, the paper focuses on the effectiveness of these measures and their limits.