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Global Disinformation Policy Database

A cross-national record of how states govern information disorder.

Spanning 0 policies from 0 governments, 2000–2024 — coded across a 53-variable scheme.

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Policies
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Countries
2000–24
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Three findings

When the wave broke, what the words mean, how governments act.

01 · Temporal evolution

The wave started in 2012 — not 2016.

Annual adoption climbed from 5.2 policies/year before 2012 to 26.9 after — a five-fold jump that began four years before the post-2016 disinformation panic.

See the timeline

02 · Conceptualization

Most policies don’t define the term they invoke.

Disinformation pathways · n=0no intent identified: 38.8%to harm: 25.2%to deceive: 19.4%to mislead: 16.5%no intent identifiedto harmto deceiveto mislead

Roughly 92% of policies use a label like “disinformation,” “fake news,” or “propaganda” without an explicit definition. Even among the policies that engage the concept further, 38.8% impose no intent requirement.

See the labels vs. reality

03 · Governance shape

What governments do depends on where they are.

AfricaEurope

Africa relies on penalties: 92% of its policies use incentive instruments (fines, criminal sanctions, sometimes payouts). In Europe, capacity leads at 32.4% — regulator agencies, media-literacy programs, and similar capacity-building.

See the governance map

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