The Democratic Containment of Fake News and Bad Beliefs

The propagation of fake news has given rise to a pervasive sense of apprehension regarding its ramifications for democratic societies. The disruptive influence of digital technologies has inten-sified the repercussions of information manipulation and eroded the epistemic foundations of democratic deliberation to an unprecedented degree. Consequently, the dissemination of fake news poses a substantial threat to fundamental democratic values such as freedom, autonomy and equality, giving rise to pressing questions regarding the optimal balance between safe-guarding these principles and preserving freedom of expression. These issues were addressed in a funded research project “Deceit and Self-Deception: How We Should Address Fake News and Other Cognitive Failures of the Democratic Public” (PRIN 2017), conducted by a team of scholars from four Italian universities (UPO, UNIGE, UNIPV, LUISS). The primary findings of this research were presented in a workshop, which was held at Luiss on 26-27 October 2023. A se-lection of the papers presented at the workshop have been selected fort his special section of Philosophy and Public Issues.