Information pollution

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Over the past few years, the phenomenon of information pollution has started to increasingly receive criminological attention both as a variant of information warfare and as a distinguishing criminogenic and harming feature of life in cyberspace. Among other things, information pollution can sharpen existing socio-cultural divisions, make people more skeptical toward legitimate news, and propagate misleading or pseudoscientific views. Circulation of polluted information is difficult to prevent and counter; both criminal law systems and platforms’ self-regulations are limited in this area, as any intervention touches the delicate equilibria needed to protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression; information pollution can also be hard to define, as it is influenced by cultural and discursive contexts. This panel aims to further the criminological debate around these complex and fundamental challenges that are shaping our contemporary societies.

Subtopic

• Topic 3: Crime Correlates / Social Media and Crime

Chair

• Anita Lavorgna, University of Bologna

Individual Presentations

• Conspiracy to commit: Information pollution, artificial intelligence, and real-world hate crime - Alberto Aziani, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; Michael Lo Giudice, Transcrime-Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Ali Shadman Yazdi, Politecnico di Milano

• Disinformation linking migration and crime in Spain: Classic moral panics in a new digital ecosystem - Jesús Aguerri, CRÍMINA Center, University Miguel Hernández of Elche; Fernando Miró-Llinares, CRÍMINA Center, University Miguel Hernández of Elche; Sara Sampayo Sande, CRIMINA

• First do no harm (online). When healthcare practitioners become information polluters - Anita Lavorgna, University of Bologna; Heather Myles, University of the West of Scotland

• Memetic warfare: Digital resistance and the expanding battlefield - Tine Munk, Nottingham Trent University