{"id":1629,"date":"2025-09-06T14:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T12:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xnet.cromamedia.com\/el-negocio-de-la-desinformacion-y-la-ley-1\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T09:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T07:48:13","slug":"the-business-of-disinformation-and-the-law-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/the-business-of-disinformation-and-the-law-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Business of Disinformation and the Law (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The (Dis)information Industry: Exacerbating Reality; Destroying Credibility
\nBy Simona Levi, Xnet \u2013 Institute for Democratic Digitalisation<\/em><\/h4>\n

On August 8, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA)<\/strong> entered into force.<\/p>\n

We live surrounded by shrill headlines and promises of exclusives that have very little to do with exclusivity. Political parties, institutions, the media business and, in general, anyone with economic resources can turn information into a grotesque spectacle that prioritises noise over rigour, visual impact over depth, and scandal over facts. In this struggle to capture attention\u2014and therefore influence and monetisation\u2014a fertile ground has been sown for the obsolescence of these very actors, even the honest ones: the public no longer believes them. In fact, it is willing to believe anything rather than be deceived time and again. The re-dignification of journalism is an urgent necessity.<\/p>\n

The history of the circulation of information has always been woven with threads of interests that, rather than informing, seek to perpetuate their own narratives and preserve their hegemony. In our time, with new resources, it would be na\u00efve to believe it would be any different: drama (real or simulated) reigns, while context and solutions disappear, drowned in a sea of sensationalism.<\/p>\n

Alarmist headline journalism, hollow political promises and opaque corporate strategies not only degrade the quality of public debate, but also undermine trust and destroy the chances of success for good journalism. In a world where everything is \u201chistoric\u201d or \u201cunprecedented\u201d, the public ends up developing a defensive scepticism: if everything is an emergency, then nothing is. This is not merely a problem of style, but a crisis that erodes the foundations of a society that aspires to be democratic. What should unite us in solidarity and action turns into a wave of exhaustion and disengagement.<\/p>\n

When a real crisis arrives, this model reveals its true cost. Media noise, broken political promises and self-interested corporate responses contribute to widespread distrust, inevitably fuelling conspiratorial and intolerant movements and hindering collective coordination. At such moments, the spectacularisation of information in pursuit of political interests and spurious profits shows just how irresponsible and dangerous it is.<\/p>\n

The solution does not lie in blaming the internet or the public, but in demanding accountability from the major actors: media corporations, political parties, institutions and economic powers. As I have been analysing since 2018 under the umbrella of #FakeYou, a research project for strategic and legislative action, there is a clear path forward: separating freedom of expression from the business of (dis)information or institutional information, and strictly regulating the latter on the basis of obligations of verification and traceability. This also entails equipping the public with tools to audit the information and power ecosystem.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), in force since August 8, could and should be good news, but ultimately it is only partially so. The Act aims to improve the media ecosystem and strengthen pluralism. It finally mandates transparency in media ownership and expands guarantees so that journalists can protect their sources.<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, it also contains a serious discrimination: a \u201cMedia Exemption\u201d whereby outlets that self-declare as media will be more protected than other sources that may be equally reliable, even when it has been shown that the former violate platform rules. This is not good news if we truly want to address the roots of disinformation, and it contradicts the progress achieved with the 2024 European Digital Services Act. Regardless of journalistic standards, any actor can self-proclaim as a media provider and thereby obtain visibility privileges.
\nThe Act will be taken up again in the autumn in the Spanish Congress Bill for the Improvement of Democratic Governance in Digital Services and the Regulation of the Media. It is crucial that we challenge political parties so that the Spanish law corrects these shortcomings.<\/p>\n

The spectacularisation of information and noise disguised as journalism are not a mere anecdote: they are a strategy of control that erodes our capacity to discern and act. If we want a fairer and more democratic society, we must demand that all major actors serve the public interest, not their own agendas. The time for informational fireworks must come to an end. It is time to build a model that prioritises nuance over impact, analysis over scandal, and verification over suspicion. Nothing new\u2014it was invented long ago; it is called journalism.
\nMore information about EMFA:
\nhttps:\/\/xnet-x.net\/es\/emfa-libertad-medios-anuncios-politicos-political-ads\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The (Dis)information Industry: Exacerbating Reality; Destroying Credibility By Simona Levi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freedom-expression-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xnet-x.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}