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Misinformation, Disinformation, and Autonomy. Against the Epistemic Paternalism Trap @ Brocher Foundation 2026
Most tools developed to counter the issues of misinformation and disinformation at scale replicate the very problem they aim to solve. By filtering, flagging, and moderating content, such tools replace human judgment with algorithmic judgment rather than empowering the people navigating the information ecosystem. This is what we refer to as the epistemic paternalism trap.…
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The structural fingerprints of disinformation: a content-agnostic framework
Infodemics fuel the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation, often outpacing the effectiveness of existing countermeasures. Current interventions—such as debunking and psychological inoculation—typically address either specific instances of false or misleading content or the known manipulative tactics through which such content spreads. While these approaches are effective and scalable, most remain inherently corrective and struggle to…
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Conspiracy theory as a component of religious biopolitics
The biopolitics of identity-centered religious movements has been a primary source of conspiracy theories in recent decades. This paper explores the shared characteristics of three examples of identity-centered religious and political movements with biopolitical agendas from three different parts of the world: Christian nationalism in the United States, Hindu nationalism in India, and political Islam…
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Analyzing Misinformation and Disinformation: Understanding Swiss COVID-19 Narratives Through Natural Language Processing Analysis
Abstract Background:The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenges posed by the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation, exacerbating societal polarization and institutional distrust. Understanding how misinformation and disinformation is understood and framed in public discourse is essential to developing strategies for building societal resilience and promoting informed decision-making during crises. Objective:This study explores the use…
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The role of AI in election interference and political propaganda in Europe
Notes for the panel discussion “Artificial Intelligence: A double-edged sword for truth” @ Voices 2025 Introduction Existing and emerging digital technologies pose significant concerns, challenges, and risks for the functioning of healthy and full democracies (see: EGE 2023). AI-driven disinformation and misinformation pose a growing threat to society’s information ecosystem. Advances in generative AI enable…
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The Dual Nature of AI in Information Dissemination: Ethical Considerations
Infodemics pose significant dangers to public health and to the societal fabric, as the spread of misinformation can have far-reaching consequences. While artificial intelligence (AI) systems have the potential to craft compelling and valuable information campaigns with positive repercussions for public health and democracy, concerns have arisen regarding the potential use of AI systems to…
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Ethical Considerations in Infodemic Management: Systematic Scoping Review
Background: During health emergencies, effective infodemic management has become a paramount challenge. A new era marked by a rapidly changing information ecosystem, combined with the widespread dissemination of misinformation and disinformation, has magnified the complexity of the issue. For infodemic management measures to be effective, acceptable, and trustworthy, a robust framework of ethical considerations is…
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AI’s Double-Edged Sword: Impact on Information Quality, Infodemics, and Public Health @ WCB Doha 2024
We presented this deck at the World Conference of Bioethics 2024 in Doha, Qatar. Key Questions: Can individuals discern whether a tweet, true or false, is authored by a human Twitter user or generated by the AI model GPT-3?What is the potential impact of synthetic disinformation on public health issues such as infodemics, and how…
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Beyond Trade-Offs: Autonomy, Effectiveness, Fairness, and Normativity in Risk and Crisis Communication
This paper addresses the critiques based on trade-offs and normativity presented in response to our target article proposing the Public Health Emergency Risk and Crisis Communication (PHERCC) framework. These critiques highlight the ethical dilemmas in crisis communication, particularly the balance between promoting public autonomy through transparent information and the potential stigmatization of specific population groups,…
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SDPI – Synthetic disinformation through politeness and impersonation
OSF repository with details, data and code: https://osf.io/jn349/ The present study investigates the impact of tone and impersonation on the production of synthetic disinformation using OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLMs) davinci-002, davinci-003, gpt-3.5-turbo, and gpt-4. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the impact of impersonation and tone on the production of synthetic…
