Assessing the Values, Definitions, and Structures of Legislative Approaches to Disinformation
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Disinformation is a pressing concern for governments across the world, and Canada is no exception. The nature of Disinformation as information that is intentionally false and purposefully disseminated by habitually anonymous actors for economic, political, or societal gain produces unique difficulties for attempts to control it. The governments of Singapore, Germany, and the United Kingdom have recently passed legislation, and the governments of Brazil and Australia have both drafted bills addressing disinformation. This capstone assesses the values and structures of these laws to identify challenges and opportunities applicable to the Canadian societal and legal context. It also examines the importance of freedom of expression in shaping, implementing, and enforcing these laws. This paper shows that jurisdictions with strong freedom of expression rights prefer legislative approaches that create narrow definitions of disinformation and regulate the behaviour of social media platforms, whereas jurisdictions with weaker freedom of expression rights can more easily create broad definitions of disinformation and directly regulate individual behaviour.