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Regulating Disinformation and Big Tech in the EU: A Research Agenda on the Institutional Strategies, Public Spheres and Analytical Challenges

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Listed:
  • Luis Bouza García
  • Alvaro Oleart

Abstract

The growing influence of social media platforms, and the disinformation that circulates in them, has transformed the public spheres. How to deal with disinformation is an open normative, empirical and political question in contemporary democracies. In this article, we outline an agenda on the institutional strategies pursued in the European Union (EU), the normative understandings of the public sphere that such strategies imply, and the analytical challenges to undertake this line of inquiry. We argue that there is an emerging competition in the EU field of disinformation – constructed by actors coming from different pre-existing fields, such as journalism or foreign policy – not only to define what is ‘true’ from what is ‘fake’, but also to determine the sort of the public sphere and democracy we ought to strive for. This perspective allows us to anticipate which actors might be empowered (or disempowered) depending on how disinformation is addressed in regulatory terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Bouza García & Alvaro Oleart, 2023. "Regulating Disinformation and Big Tech in the EU: A Research Agenda on the Institutional Strategies, Public Spheres and Analytical Challenges," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/365881, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/365881
    Note: SCOPUS: ar.j
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alvaro Oleart & Luis Bouza, 2018. "Democracy at Stake: Multipositional Actors and Politicization in the EU Civil Society Field," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 870-887, May.
    2. Gorwa, Robert, 2019. "What is Platform Governance?," SocArXiv fbu27, Center for Open Science.
    3. Alvaro Oleart & Luis Bouza, 2018. "Democracy at Stake: Multipositional Actors and Politicization in the EU Civil Society Field," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/273672, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
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    Keywords

    Big Tech; disinformation; European Union; public policy; public sphere;
    All these keywords.

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