How can governments combat the spread of misinformation?

The Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled a parallel “infodemic” of harmful misinformation about the virus and vaccines. This has highlighted the wider challenge for governments of combating the spread of misleading content on the internet and social media platforms. This Institute for Government event, held in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, explored the scale of the misinformation challenge facing the UK government and the policy approaches that government can take to address it. On our panel to discuss these issues were: Damian Collins MP, former Chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Professor Peter Knight, Professor of American Studies at the University of Manchester and Principal Investigator on the AHRC’s ‘Infodemic: Combatting Covid-19 conspiracy theories' project Will Moy, Chief Executive of Full Fact Marianna Spring, specialist BBC reporter covering disinformation and social media The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.