Abstract
The internet and social media have caused a tectonic shift in public discourse by altering the ways we impart and receive information. This has removed traditional barriers to communication, meaning that, in theory at least, anyone with access to the internet can instantaneously reach a mass audience, creating a public sphere rich in diverse voices and viewpoints. However, the removal of the checks and balances associated with offline communication has led to the internet, and the social media platforms it hosts, acting as a false information Petri dish, since they provide the ideal environment for false information to grow and then spread quickly, online and offline: inter alia its impact can readily create threats to the healthy workings of democracy as demonstrated in particular by the proliferation of false information relating to recent elections. In this chapter we analyse the potential efficacy of the Online Safety Act 2023’s various mechanisms for tackling false information, that apply to individuals, and to the regulated services themselves, and what these may mean for public discourse, once the regime under the Act is fully in force. This chapter will conclude that the contribution that could be made by the new regime to reclaiming power over democracy from the tech companies is clearly open to question in terms of its probable efficacy in practice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Across the Great Divide |
| Subtitle of host publication | Platform Regulation in the United States and Europe |
| Editors | András Koltay, Ronald Krotoszynski, Emily Laidlaw, Bernát Török |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 13 Jan 2026 |