THE ETHICS OF COMBATTING DISINFORMATION: A DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY APPROACH
Valentin STOIAN [a] [b] (ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1393-8933)
Analele Universității din București. Științe Politice [Annals of the University of Bucharest. Political Science series]
Vol. XXVI (2024), Online first
https://doi.org/10.54885/AUB-SP-KBRE6294 | DOWNLOAD
[b] "Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy, Romania
The article evaluates the extent to which policies aimed at combating disinformation are morally justified in a democratic society. It argues that using the prevailing Just War Theory as a normative framework to address the morality of counter-disinformation policies leads to morally counterintuitive consequences, such as condoning extremely aggressive approaches. Firstly, an evaluation of the counter-disinformation policies identified in the literature is conducted, placing them on a scale from “soft” to “hard” policies. Then, the article compares Just War Theory and deliberative democracy and claims that the former suffers from an ingrained bias in favor of the security of the state as the referent object of security. Deliberative democracy is, according to the article, a more useful normative framework, given that it is more attuned to the values of contemporary democratic societies and places deliberation at the key value. Finally, through a comparison of the results of normative evaluations of counter-disinformation policies between deliberative democracy and Just War Theory, the article argues in favor of the former.
Keywords: deliberative democracy, Just War Theory, disinformation, ethics
Valentin STOIAN is a researcher in the National Intelligence Studies Institute of the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Bucharest and an M.A. and PhD in political science from the Central European University. His work has appeared in Intelligence and National Security, Critical Studies on Security, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence and Journal of Common Market Studies.
STOIAN, Valentin. 2024. The Ethics of Combatting Disinformation: A Deliberative Democracy Approach. Analele Universității din București. Științe Politice [Annals of the University of Bucharest. Political Science series] XXVI: Online first. https://doi.org/10.54885/AUB-SP-KBRE6294
DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
FUNDING
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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