Preserving the Marketplace of ideas
By Julian | Last Updated: 19 March 2025
The community against disinformation cannot survive with oppositional positioning to advocates for free speech and populism. Disinformation and hate research spiked when there was a huge institutional backlash against populism and our field got conflated with backlash against populism. However, on a tactic technique level most in the community are not addressing populism, our aim is to address artificial distortions in the online marketplace of ideas (fake accounts, deepfakes etc.) which is the same as the conservative aim of addressing other artificial distortions (censorship). Online infrastructure serves first and foremost to disseminate information. Within that there are powerful brokers who can dictate what information comes to users first, these are the big platforms and there is room for ample debate on whether they should have the power that they do. Within these platforms there are a wide variety of actors using the anonymity of the internet to try manipulate information so that reflections of the reality are inaccurate. The tools at their disposal have never been more powerful ranging from image, video and audio distortion that is designed to trick our natural senses when discerning what is real or fake.
There is a genuine issue here that warrants investigation. We need to pose the question: you wouldn’t fire economists researching a market crisis, why would you fire experts researching a crisis in the marketplace of ideas?
For those addressing populism, trying to achieve factual discourse is the wrong move. Populism is an emotional response to institutions that don’t listen to people. Facts can always be debated and many of the facts we hold in our everyday lives are gross simplifications of exceedingly complex issues. No one is immune from belief in falsehoods. However populism isn’t about falsehoods it’s about trying to change the institutions that people no longer see as trustworthy or in step with everyday life. The only response to populism that works is to give a reason for people to trust institutions, to make institutions responsive. Which is a separate issue.
If this enterprise is going to be at all worth pursuing nuance in what counts as disinformation needs to be promoted. We should start with actors online using technical means to manipulate people. Other issues such as the type of rhetoric used on people needs to be addressed via separate mechanisms.
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