Ep 48: Why ‘Disinformation’ is Difficult to Define with Jacob Sullum of Reason Magazine

Summary – Why ‘Disinformation’ is Difficult to Define with Jacob Sullum of Reason Magazine

In this episode, I talk to Jacob Sullum, senior editor at Reason magazine, about a recent piece he wrote entitled The Perils of Trying to Curtail Hazily Defined ‘Disinformation’. In this article, he discusses a recent rating given to Reason by an organization called the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) that named Reason as one of the ’10 riskiest online news sources’ in the United States. In this interview, we discuss the subjectivity that is inherent in popular conceptions of ‘disinformation’, how the criteria used by the GDI are deeply contradictory, how the GDI received funding from the State Department, and why free speech and the 1st Amendment are so important. Jacob provides a wide-sweeping and insightful analysis of the massive contemporary (mis)use of the term ‘disinformation’ and the ways in which organizations often wrongly apply it in popular discourse.

Media Referenced:

• The Perils of Trying to Curtail Hazily Defined ‘Disinformation’, Jacob Sullum: https://reason.com/2023/02/15/the-perils-of-trying-to-curtail-hazily-defined-disinformation/
• Jacob Sullum on Reason: https://reason.com/people/jacob-sullum/
• Jacob Sullum on Twitter: @jacobsullum
• Global Disinformation Index Website: https://www.disinformationindex.org/