Disinformation, Democracy and the Myth of the Informed Citizen

Carl Dolan

doi:10.6018/reg.721501

Autores/as

Carl Dolan European Policy Centre

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/reg.721501

Palabras clave: Discurso Político, Democracia, Desinformación

Resumen

Existe un discurso político emergente en la Unión Europea según el cual el actual malestar democrático al que se enfrenta Europa es producto de una mentalidad de la «posverdad», contemporánea y provocada por el aumento del uso de las redes sociales. Más concretamente, se sostiene que la facilidad con la que actores malintencionados pueden difundir desinformación a través de las redes sociales y de internet en general tiene un efecto significativo sobre los procesos políticos y las elecciones democráticas. En este trabajo argumento que este discurso exagera tanto la novedad como el carácter perjudicial de la desinformación en internet para la democracia.

Descargas

Los datos de descargas todavía no están disponibles.

Metrics

Vistas/Descargas

Resumen
0
PDF
0

Citas

Achen, C. H., & Bartels, L. M. (2016). Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government. Princeton University Press.

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2025). The TikTokers accused of triggering an election scandal

Budak, C., Nyhan, B., Rothschild, D. M., Thorson, E., & Watts, D. J. (2024). Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation. Nature, 630, 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07417-w

Constitutional Court of Romania. (2024). Decision No. 32 of 6 December 2024 on the annulment of the electoral process concerning the election of the President of Romania.

Converse, P. E. (1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In D. E. Apter (Ed.), Ideology and discontent (pp. 206–261). Free Press.

Dewey, J. (1927). The public and its problems. Henry Holt and Company.

Eady, G., Paskhalis, T., Zilinsky, J., Bonneau, R., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. A. (2023). Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency foreign influence campaign on Twitter in the 2016 US election and its relationship to attitudes and voting behavior. Nature Communications, 14, 62. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35576-9

European Commission. (2001). European governance: A white paper (COM(2001) 428 final).

European Commission. (2020). Communication from the Commission on the European democracy action plan (COM(2020) 790 final).

European Commission. (2023). Communication from the Commission on defence of democracy (COM(2023) 630 final).

European Commission, & High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. (2025). European Democracy Shield—Empowering strong and resilient democracies (JOIN(2025) 791 final).

European Council. (2015). European Council meeting (19 and 20 March 2015): Conclusions (EUCO 11/15).

European Digital Media Observatory. (2024, December 9). Algorithmic influence on elections: Insights from Romania’s case study.

Financial Times (FT). (2024). Russian election meddling ‘nearly impossible’ to prove, says Romania’s president. Pop, Valentina, December 19, 2024

Føllesdal, A., & Hix, S. (2006). Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU: A response to Majone and Moravcsik. Journal of Common Market Studies, 44(3), 533–562.

Global Witness. (2024, December 17). What happened on TikTok around the annulled Romanian presidential election? An investigation and poll.

Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society (T. Burger, Trans.). MIT Press. (Original work published 1962)

Habermas, J. (1996). Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy (W. Rehg, Trans.). MIT Press.

Hertwig, R., Lewandowsky, S., Lorenz-Spreen, P. and Oswald, L. (2023) A Systematic Review of Worldwide Causal and Correlational Evidence on Digital Media and Democracy, Nature and Human Behaviour 7, 74–101 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01460-1

Jungherr, A., & Schroeder, R. (2021). Disinformation and the structural transformations of the public arena: Addressing the actual challenges to democracy. Social Media + Society, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305121988928

Lippmann, W. (1922). Public opinion. Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Mueller, R. S., III. (2019). Report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. Department of Justice

Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (2017). Assessing Russian activities and intentions in recent US elections (ICA 2017-01D).

Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). (2026, February 14). Propaganda machine: Secret documents reveal Russia’s foreign influence strategy across three continents.

Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania. (2025). Results of the 2025 election for the President of Romania.

Pomerantsev, P. (2019). This is not propaganda: Adventures in the war against reality. Faber & Faber.

Popkin, S. L. (1991). The reasoning voter: Communication and persuasion in presidential campaigns. University of Chicago Press.

Reuters. (2024a, December 4). Romania was target of ‘aggressive hybrid Russian attacks’ during elections, security council says.

Reuters. (2024b, December 18). Romanian parliament sees evidence of election meddling, committee says.

Rid, T. (2020). Active measures: The secret history of disinformation and political warfare. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Schmidt, V. A. (2013). Democracy and legitimacy in the European Union revisited: Input, output and ‘throughput’. Political Studies, 61(1), 2–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00962.x

Venice Commission. (2025). Urgent report on the cancellation of election results by constitutional courts (CDL-AD(2025)003). Council of Europe.

Treaty on European Union, 2012 O.J. (C 326) 13.

TikTok. (2025). Report on the Code of Conduct on Disinformation: Romania presidential election integrity actions.

United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. (2019). Russian active measures campaigns and interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Volume 2: Russia’s use of social media with additional views. U.S. Senate.

Venice Commission. (2025). Urgent report on the cancellation of election results by constitutional courts (CDL-AD(2025)003). Council of Europe.

Zaller, J. R. (1992). The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge University Press.