Countering Disinformation And Building Societal Resilience

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 5, 2025, 5:45 AM

countering disinformation and building societal resilience

Disinformation, information manipulation and interference are forms of hybrid threats manifesting across the world. The threat is always present and expanding; a growing number of actors are using an increasing number of tactics. This is a global challenge also affecting the Western Balkans. Dealing with this challenge requires a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach, which the EU is supporting across the region. Strengthening partnerships with international and local organizations – governmental and non-governmental – helps build the resilience local populations need to autonomously identify and tackle disinformation, and increases the capacity of the Western Balkans partners... This work remains crucial for strengthening democracy, for example in relation to protecting the integrity of elections, access to information, and media freedom.

Increasing media literacy is also of high importance. Being able to critically assess, use and create information is a key skill in the 21st century, allowing citizens to navigate the information environment and make well-informed choices. It also facilitates their responsible participation in political processes and voting in democratic elections, free from interference and manipulation. In line with the overall EU efforts in this field, the EU supports activities to enhance media literacy in the Western Balkans. This includes research studies throughout the region which raise awareness and build social resilience such as “Disinformation in the Online Sphere: The Case of BiH” and "Disinformation and Information Distortion in North Macedonia", capacity-building... You have full access to this open access article

A Correction to this article was published on 31 May 2025 This article addresses the critical issue of societal resilience in the face of disinformation, particularly in highly digitized democratic societies. Recognizing the escalating impact of disinformation as a significant threat to societal security, the study conducts a scoping review of the literature from 2018 to 2022 to explore the current understanding and approaches to... The core contribution of the article is the development of a preliminary typological framework that addresses key elements and issue areas relevant to societal resilience to disinformation. This framework spans multiple dimensions, including legal/regulatory, educational, political/governance, psychological/social-psychological, and technological domains. By synthesizing existing knowledge and filling identified gaps, the framework aims to serve as a foundational tool for empirical analyses and the enhancement of resilience strategies.

One of the innovative aspects of the proposed framework is its potential to be transformed into a computable and customizable tool. This tool would measure the maturity level of various countermeasures against disinformation, thereby providing a practical methodology for planning and implementing effective democratic responses to disinformation. The article emphasizes the importance of this framework as both a conceptual and practical guide. It offers valuable insights for a wide range of civil society actors, including policymakers, educators, and technologists, in their efforts to protect information integrity and bolster societal resilience. By laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive understanding of societal resilience to disinformation, the article contributes to the broader discourse on information protection and provides actionable guidance for addressing the evolving challenges posed... Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

In highly digitized democratic societies, there are growing concerns about the impact of disinformation. European countries have faced significant challenges related to disinformation issues, such as elections, fundamental democratic values, pandemics, and migration, among others. This has prompted the European Commission (2018a) to outline four pillars in its action plan on tackling online disinformation. These include improving institutional capabilities, fostering coordinated responses, engaging the private sector, and raising awareness. The Digital Services Act (European Union 2022) has binding regulatory powers to address large social media platforms, for instance, if they are deemed to be promoting and disseminating disinformation. However, the effectiveness of these measures remains uncertain.

The Global Risks Report 2024 by the World Economic Forum (2024) clearly illustrates this, ranking disinformation as the most severe short-term (2-year) global risk and placing societal polarization in third place – with both... The UN General Assembly has expressed concern over the proliferation of disinformation and has welcomed the efforts of the Secretary-General to promote international cooperation in countering disinformation. In response to that, the Secretary-General has submitted a report based on information and best practices shared by States, UN entities and others on countering disinformation. In his report, Countering disinformation for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Secretary-General describes the challenges posed by disinformation and the responses to it, sets out the relevant international... Recent decades have been marked by rapid technical transformations that have completely upended the ways people interact, communicate and access information about the world. People now possess the entirety of human knowledge in the palm of their hand, and news and information can ricochet around the world in seconds.

There are vast new opportunities to educate, inform and organize. Particularly during the COVID-19 lockdowns, technology was key in enabling continued access to vital information about health, but also to education, work etc. Yet these dramatic shifts have also had negative consequences that we are only beginning to confront, including the much accelerated rate at which misinformation, disinformation, and even hate speech spread. Again, the COVID-19 pandemic brought this into sharp focus as health measures were widely debated and dis- and misinformation made their implementation more difficult. While misinformation refers to the accidental spread of inaccurate information, disinformation is not only inaccurate, but intends to deceive and is spread in order to do serious harm. The Administration promised free expression.

The results were anything but more freedom. With more than 22K instances since 2021, the bans have become normalized. Thu. December 4 at The Strand Bookstore in NYC The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers recognizes 12 emerging writers each year for their debut short story

Local censorship tactics are being adopted on the state and federal levels A high-level, evidence-informed guide to some of the major proposals for how democratic governments, platforms, and others can counter disinformation. The Technology and International Affairs Program develops insights to address the governance challenges and large-scale risks of new technologies. Our experts identify actionable best practices and incentives for industry and government leaders on artificial intelligence, cyber threats, cloud security, countering influence operations, reducing the risk of biotechnologies, and ensuring global digital inclusion. The goal of the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations (PCIO) is to foster evidence-based policymaking to counter threats in the information environment. Key roadblocks as found in our work include the lack of: transparency reporting to inform what data is available for research purposes; rules guiding how data can be shared with researchers and for what...

Carnegie’s Information Environment Project is a multistakeholder effort to help policymakers understand the information environment, think through the impact of efforts to govern it, and identify promising interventions to foster democracy. Disinformation is widely seen as a pressing challenge for democracies worldwide. Many policymakers are grasping for quick, effective ways to dissuade people from adopting and spreading false beliefs that degrade democratic discourse and can inspire violent or dangerous actions. Yet disinformation has proven difficult to define, understand, and measure, let alone address. Capacity Building and Strategic Consulting We equip leaders and professionals with hands-on capacities and strategic frameworks to prevent and counter harmful disinformation – enabling organizations and communities to pursue their missions and protect their core values.

Policy and academic research are essential to understanding disinformation and its societal impact – yet their insights often remain underused in real-world contexts. To complement the work of traditional think tanks, the Center for Disinformation Resilience focuses on bridging three critical gaps: We turn the latest insights into action-oriented trainings and tools tailored for practitioners and multipliers in the field. We go beyond traditional fact-checking by integrating approaches from radicalization prevention (P/CVE), systemic dialogues, alternative campaigning to enable professionals engage vulnerable communities more effectively. Introduction: The Disinformation Dilemma and the 2024 Election The 21st century presents a paradox: despite unprecedented access to information, the public is not necessarily better informed.

The decline of traditional news, the rise of inflammatory content online, and the ease of creating and disseminating disinformation, particularly with AI tools, contribute to this problem. The 2024 presidential election highlighted these challenges, with disinformation campaigns ranging from AI-generated robocalls to false claims about social issues. Xenophobia, transphobia, and racism further complicated the landscape, intertwining prejudice with perceptions of truth. Simultaneously, social media platforms scaled back content moderation, and legal pressures hampered counter-disinformation research, demanding innovative solutions. PEN America’s Localized Approach: Empowering Communities Against Disinformation PEN America’s Disinformation and Community Engagement (DCE) program addressed this challenge by focusing on local initiatives.

Recognizing that disinformation is a global problem requiring localized solutions, the program piloted interventions in Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Phoenix. These rapidly growing, diverse Sunbelt cities served as bellwethers for understanding how disinformation operates and how communities react to counter-programming. The program aimed to distribute trustworthy information, amplify local perspectives on disinformation’s impact, and cultivate critical information consumption skills. While nonpartisan, the program acknowledged the highly polarized political climate surrounding the 2024 election and the frequent weaponization of the term "disinformation" itself. The Post-Election Landscape: Disinformation’s Enduring Power and the Need for Resilience

Countering Disinformation And Building Societal Resilience

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