Disinformation and digital media as a challenge for democracy

This book is motivated, to a large extent, by some recent troubling developments in public discourse, namely the developments in information and disinformation practices. From the beginning of history, various and diverse means or channels of communication have been used to inform, misinform (unintentionally) and disinform (deliberately). However, in recent decades, the emergence and development of new information and communications technologies (ICT), combined with the ever-increasing digitalisation and globalisation of almost every aspect of modern life, among others, have opened up new and uncharted avenues to that end. This book therefore focuses on disinformation practices occurring with the help of digital media as these practices bring to the fore profound negative ramifications for the functioning of a democratic polity. [...]The book constitutes the sixth volume in the European Integration and Democracy series. The Series was launched in 2011 and is edited at the Centre for Direct Democracy Studies (CDDS) at the Faculty of Law of the University of Białystok, Poland. Since 2014, Belgo-British Intersentia publishes our series. Each volume in the series tackles a pressing issue that is of utmost importance for the European integration project and – at the same time – that poses a challenge to the values and principles on which Europe has been built. [...]This book does not aspire to be a monograph on disinformation, digital media and democracy in Europe; rather, it is an anthology compiling diverse yet rich academic and professional comments on a wide range of pressing issues within a broad topic. It is meant to contribute to a debate and a reflection on the condition of our democracy at the dawn of the third decade of the 21st century. We have been exceptionally careful in allowing the authors to express their ideas as they wish to, with only minimal editorial intervention. Our intention is that this book will act as both a commentary and reference work, and will reach not only our fellow academics in Europe and beyond, but also policy-makers, civil society organisations and journalists concerned with disinformation, digital media and democracy in Europe and beyond