09.01.2025

Dealing with security-related false information

Luzia Sievi und Maria Pawelec publish paper in the International Journal for Disaster Risk Reduction.

(How) Should security authorities in democratic states counter disinformation in crises? 

False information on social media threatens the security and bodily integrity of individuals as well as the stability of democratic states. Security authorities such as police forces, fire brigades, aid and technical relief organisations are tasked with upholding this security and stability. At the same time, they must not unduly interfere in democratic opinion formation and freedom of speech and expression. How can and should they deal with this dilemma?

Luzia Sievi and Maria Pawelec assess this in their new open access paper "(How) Should security authorities counter false information on social media in crises? A democracy-theoretical and ethical reflection", which is now available online at the International Journal for Disaster Risk Reduction: doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.105093

Sievi and Pawelec reflect upon four different measures security authorities can take: Media literacy trainings, social media monitoring, preventive and reactive crisis communication, and community management. They focus on values such as Hliberty, autonomy, neutrality, privacy, non-discrimination, and security to assess which measures security authorities can and should take.

The paper was compiled within the research project  PREVENT, funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.