RT Article
T1 Liars, skeptics, cheerleaders: human rights implications of post-truth disinformation from state officials and politicians
JF Human rights review
VO 24
IS 3
SP 365
OP 387
A1 Deluggi, Nicky
A2 Ashraf, Cameran
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1862623104
AB The purpose of this paper is to philosophically examine how disinformation from state officials and politicians affects the right to access to information and political participation. Next to the more straightforward implications for political self-determination, the paper examines how active dissemination of lies by figures of epistemic authority can be framed as a human rights issue and affects trust patterns between citizens, increases polarization, impedes dialogue, and obstructs access to politically relevant information by gatekeeping knowledge. Analyzing European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) case law, the paper argues that human rights law provides some argumentative basis for extending individuals’ rights as epistemic and political agents towards a “right to truth spoken by politicians”. However, challenges in balancing a possible restriction of lies and assessing the real effective harm that comes from them remain, potentially leading to a vacuum of rights protection for less visible long-term harm to individuals and public discourse. In order to have a real chance at tackling the harmful consequences of publicly told lies from a human rights perspective, it is necessary to rethink the notion of harm to encompass more complex and abstract forms of politico-epistemic damage to individuals and the public.
K1 freedom of expression
K1 Right to truth
K1 Human Rights
K1 Post-truth
K1 Disinformation
DO 10.1007/s12142-023-00697-1