Are public officials’ lies unsustainable or do they have far reaching effects? A study on the obligations of the government and its officials to prevent the proliferation of disinformation

Executive Summary

• State responses to the recent “crisis” caused by misinformation in social media have mainly aimed at penalizing its authors or establishing liability for those who facilitate its dissemination. Internet companies, especially large platforms, have deployed numerous techniques, measures, and instruments to address the phenomenon.

• However, little has been done to identify the origin of misinformation and evaluate the phenomenon in light of specific obligations from certain sectors.

• In this paper we presume that:1)it would be wrong to attribute to social media an exclusive role in the new disinformation crisis that impacts the information ecosystem, and 2) disinformation has different impacts depending on who promotes it — public vs. private —, and public officials have special responsibilities regarding their speech. The last point is the central object of this study.

• The research looks into some of the obligations of public officials (and other public persons as candidates for public office) to tell the truth, and/or take measures to avoid errors in the information they disseminate in the exer- cise of their office. Thus, the information provided by officials when publicly speaking has ethical and legal obligations.

  We conclude that public officials have a duty to tell the truth regarding their speech and expressions. Following the logic of these obligations, we could look into new possible lines of investigation in the search for solutions to the dissemination of disinformation and the harm to public debate.

  Complete paper here

  This research was developed by the Regional Office for South America of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) - and directed and coordinated by Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información [Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information] ( CELE) of Universidad de Palermo, Argentina for Al Sur. The IIHR was created in 1980 through an agreement between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Republic of Costa Rica, to be an autonomous international entity of an academic nature for the teaching, research and promotion of human rights and all disciplines related to them. The IIHR links its activities with the action of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since, due to its origin and mandate, it is obliged to disseminate the doctrine emanating from the existence and operation of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights of individuals and communities. The Regional Office for South America covers issues in that area without prejudice to the coordination with the Institute's headquarters located in Costa Rica. This document is a contribution for Al Sur's work and aims to capitalize on their regional resources: much of the data included here was compiled by the consortium of organizations that make up Al Sur, to whom the authors are grateful for their contributions and comments.