The Impact of Disinformation: A Democracy Challenge in the Age of COVID-19

Disinformation is one of the biggest threats to governments. It erodes public trust in state institutions and media sources. In recent years it has been fueled by the boom in internet connectivity and internet media. Disinformation has been around for decades. COVID-19 presented states with the opportunity to impose measures that would otherwise be deemed to curtail human rights, if it were not for public safety. Authoritarian states have taken the opportunity to curtail basic freedoms and rights, while others have used it to advance their political ambitions through elections, by ignoring safety measures for fear of low voter turnout and by also taking advantage of the safety measures to cling onto power. Disinformation has played a great part in galvanizing support against the pandemic through utterances and messaging from political leaders. In order to deal with the problem of disinformation, we need to understand what the term ‘disinformation’ means. Further along, we will advance a number of theories which attempt to explain disinformation. We will also delve into various scenarios where disinformation on COVID-19 has impacted democracies.