With increasing geopolitical tensions and AI-enabled acceleration, disinformation and misinformation are increasingly recognized as one of the most pressing challenges threatening democratic societies. In the new policy brief “Beyond “Fake News”: How information integrity creates a building ground for disinformation-resilient society?”, Camille Grenier, Executive Director at the Forum on Information and Democracy, and Pierre Noro, Advisor at the Hub, introduce readers to the concept of information integrity. Moving beyond fact-checking and content moderation, the authors suggest approaching this issue from a fresh perspective, shifting the focus toward policies fostering positive, plural, and resilient information environments.

The brief explores the multifaceted nature of information integrity, how strategies designed around this concept can unite broad communities of public, private, and civil society stakeholders, and how they can be adapted to the current reality of national media ecosystems and the threats they face. To ensure that properly regulated digital technologies serve democracy, freedom of expression, and access to information, the authors suggest a framework to articulate international and domestic implementation policies, situating these efforts within the broader context of how technological, economic, and political factors transform information ecosystems, from the impact of AI technologies on media landscapes to the specific challenges multilingual countries are facing.

After a brief summary of the history of “information integrity” as a concept, the authors outline its main characteristics: moving from mainly countering foreign information manipulations and interferences (FIMI) to focusing on the citizens, protecting their right to access reliable information, adopting a systemic approach to plural and resilient information ecosystems. They also identify key challenges policies based on information integrity must address: improving information and media content production, enhancing and securing distribution, effectively adapting to local context, and creating synergies across nations.

To integrate international commitments and national policies, the brief suggests the creation of National Focal Points on Information Integrity, facilitating collaboration between countries sharing similar challenges to information integrity and acting as stewards of the articulation between global agreements and national implementation.

The policy brief concludes with five strategic recommendations to improve media and information environments with such a “whole-of-society” approach:

• Recognize the right to reliable information in international agreements
• Promote and support media organizations that abide by ethical and professional norms of journalism
• Ensure access to data and strengthen research capacity
• Use already existing, preferably interoperable tools and projects
• Establish National Focal Points on Information Integrity

We invite you to read the whole policy brief: Beyond "fake news". How information integrity creates a building ground for disinformation-resilient society? (PDF, 367 Ko)