Conspiracy theories and fake news are receiving wide media coverage and their proliferation has motivated academic research on the driving factors irrational cognition and behavior. This dissertation focuses on individuals' beliefs about knowledge and knowing, which are commonly referred to as epistemic beliefs. The term post-truth epistemic beliefs is proposed and defined as a strong trust in one’s intuition, a low need to align opinions with evidence, and the strong conviction that truth is a matter of power. Across six online studies, a mediation model is proposed and tested. It includes the core of all dark traits, the Dark Factor of Personality (D), as an antecedent of post-truth epistemic beliefs, and irrational cognition and behavior as consequences. Manuscript #1 comprises four studies showing that post-truth epistemic beliefs are rooted in D and predict increased endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories as well as less engagement in health-protective behavior against COVID-19. Manuscript #2 includes a US nationally representative study suggesting that post-truth epistemic beliefs and D predict a lower probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19. Manuscript #3 presents a repeated measures experiment indicating that the nexus of D and post-truth epistemic beliefs also predicts less discernment between fake and accurate news. These findings highlight a major insight and a serious challenge for rational communication: Some individuals deliberately disregard (scientific) evidence and rational decision-making. Against this background, the need to foster the epistemological development of students and educators is emphasized. / Verschwörungstheorien und Fake News werden in den Medien lebhaft diskutiert und haben zu einem verstärkten Interesse wissenschaftlicher Forschung an den Risikofaktoren für irrationale Überzeugungen und irrationales Verhalten beigetragen. Die vorliegende Dissertation konzentriert sich in diesem Zusammenhang auf individuelle Überzeugungen darüber, was Wissen ist und wie es entsteht, welche als epistemische Überzeugungen bezeichnet werden. In dieser Arbeit wird der Begriff der postfaktischen epistemischen Überzeugungen verwendet – für ein starkes Vertrauen in die eigene Intuition, ein geringes Bedürfnis, Meinungen mit Beweisen abzugleichen und die Überzeugung, dass Wahrheit eine Frage von Macht ist. Ein Mediationsmodell wird über sechs Online-Studien hinweg vorgeschlagen und getestet. Es enthält den Kern aller dunklen Persönlichkeitsmerkmale, den Dunklen Faktor der Persönlichkeit (D), als Prädiktor von postfaktischen epistemischen Überzeugungen und irrationale Überzeugungen und irrationales Verhalten als deren Folgen. Manuskript 1 umfasst vier Studien, die zeigen, dass postfaktische epistemische Überzeugungen mit D verbunden sind und eine verstärkte Befürwortung von COVID-19-Verschwörungstheorien sowie ein verringertes Schutzverhalten bezüglich COVID-19 vorhersagen. Manuskript 2 enthält eine für die USA repräsentative Studie, die zeigt, dass postfaktische epistemische Überzeugungen und D vorhersagen, dass mit geringerer Wahrscheinlichkeit eine COVID-19-Schutzimpfung in Anspruch genommen wurde. Manuskript 3 enthält ein Experiment mit Messwiederholung, das zeigt, dass der Nexus aus D und postfaktischen epistemischen Überzeugungen vorhersagt, dass Menschen weniger zwischen falschen und wahren Nachrichten unterscheiden. Diese Ergebnisse liefern eine wichtige Erkenntnis, die eine ernsthafte Herausforderung für rationale Kommunikation aufzeigt: Einige Menschen lehnen bewusst (wissenschaftliche) Beweise und rationale Entscheidungen ab. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird die Notwendigkeit verdeutlicht, die epistemologische Entwicklung von Lernenden und Lehrenden verstärkt zu fördern.

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Syftet med studien var att undersöka skillader mellan förhör via chatt och som förhör ansikte mot ansikte. Evenuella skillnader mellan kvinnor och män undersöktes också. I studien deltog 64 deltagare varav 32 män och 32 kvinnor. Deltagarna var 19 till 32 år (M= 22,89, SD= 2, 92). Deltagarna fick bevittna ett brott via en videosekvens och sedan genomgå ett förhör, antingen ansikte mot ansikte eller via chatt. Förhörsteknikerna gav likvärdiga resultat vad gällde desinformationseffekt och antal korrekta vittnesuppgifter. Kvinnor använde fler ord än män i båda förhörsteknikerna, i övrigt fanns inga könsskillnader. Förhör via chatt gav större andel rätt per ord än förhör ansikte mot ansikte. Slutsatsen är att chattförhör är likvärdigt med, och i vissa aspekter effektivare än, förhör ansikte mot ansikte.

The purpose of this essay is to examine whether current EU regulation of disinformation online is justifiable from a constitutional law perspective, assessed in relation to the protec­tion of the freedom of expression and information. The study initially clarifies the motives behind the EU regulation in question by examining the potential effects that a widespread dissemination of misleading or false information could have on democracy. The protection of the freedom of speech and information provided for by Article 10 of the ECHR and Article 11 of the EU Charter is later examined as regards to the possibility of regulating disinformation and the possibility to hold online intermediaries responsible for the content which they mediate and store. Both existing and recently proposed EU regulation of disinformation is mainly based on what can be considered as a union initiated self-regulation: platform companies are encouraged to counter disinformation on their own initiative through terms of use and content moderation. To some extent, these efforts are then monitored and supervised by the EU. The primary motivation to counteract disinformation is that it may jeopardize citizens’ abilities to make informed decisions and thereby impede public debate. Addi­tionally, an extensive spread of disinformation is considered to undermine citizens' trust in democratic institutions. Since the regulation aims to protect the purposes of the freedom of expression and information, as central preconditions in a well-functioning democracy, it can to a certain extent be considered advantageous from a rights perspective. Meanwhile, the regulation also raises some concerns evaluated in the light of the Convention and the Charter. In particular, it could be questioned whether the regulation is compatible with the legality requirement of Article 10 ECHR and Article 52 (1) of the EU Charter. Furthermore, the risk of platform companies removing more content than the provisions allow may be con­sidered significant, especially in view of the broad EU definition of disinformation. Hence, the EU regulation of disinformation raises a conflict of interest regarding the risk of disinformation and the protection of freedom of expression and information in today's digitalized democracies.

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Utvecklingen av artificiell intelligens (AI) har tagit världen med storm, men har samtidigt visat sig vara en av de största och svåraste utmaningarna vårt samhälle står inför. En av utmaningarna är användandet av AI-genererade deepfakes som ett desinformationverktyg. Vid granskning av tidigare forskning konstaterades att majoriteten av dem behandlar detektion och förebyggande åtgärder. Konsekvenserna av deepfakes undersöks i varierande omfattning men ingen har studerat konsekvenserna för just det svenska samhället på ett djupare sätt, en lucka detta arbete ämnar fylla. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka deepfakes påverkan på spridandet av desinformation, vilka konsekvenser denna teknik kan medföra för det svenska samhället och hur dessa kan hanteras, samt ta reda på hur deepfakes kan se ut och användas framöver. För att besvara arbetets frågeställningar genomfördes en litteraturöversikt i kombination med semistrukturerade intervjuer.   Resultatet av arbetet visar att deepfakes tack vare sin lättillgänglighet har stor påverkan på hur desinformation skapas och sprids. Desinformation med deepfakes kan medföra flera allvarliga konsekvenser, däribland ökade sociala splittringar och ett minskat förtroende till digital information. För att hantera dessa konsekvenser bör en kombination av filtrering, lagstiftning och källkritik tillämpas. Tekniken är under konstant utveckling och användandet av deepfakes som ett desinformationsverktyg kommer med stor sannolikhet att utnyttjas i ännu större omfattning framöver, vilket visar på behovet av fortsatt forskning inom området.

Det finns en pågående samhällsdebatt om spridning av desinformation på internet och vilka samhällskonsekvenser det kan innebära. På internet, exempelvis YouTube, möjliggörs spridandet av information till en stor publik, utan att någon granskar eller reglerar dess innehåll, vilket i sin tur gör det lättare att sprida desinformation. I studien analyseras en konspirationsteoretisk video på YouTube med hjälp av metoden narrativanalys. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för uppbyggnaden av en konspirations- teoretisk video utifrån de narrativa drag som uppvisas, vilket görs med hjälp av teorier inom narratologi och konspirationsteori. Vi har som mål att utreda vilken betydelse de aktörer som verkar inom videon har för att skapa ett övertygande narrativ. Utifrån syftet har studiens frågeställningar formulerats: Vilken funktion fyller aktörerna i videon? Vilka narrativa hjälpmedel använder sig producenten av för att ifrågasätta tidigare forskning? Studien besvarar syfte och frågeställningar genom att i analysen undersöka videomaterialet med hjälp av narrativanalysmetoden aktantmodellen för att söka efter narrativa strukturer,  generella teorier om konspirationsteorier samt hur den litterära berättarformeln mysterium uttrycker sig i videon. Resultatet visade att aktantmodellen underlättade struktureringen av materialet och att berättarrösten inom videon besitter en omfattande kontroll över innehållet och den narrativa strukturen. Vi upptäckte att materialet inte uppnådde samtliga klassiska narrativa drag och mysterieformelns kännetecken, men vi kom fram till att producenten till viss del använder sig av en narrativ struktur och mysterieformel för att skapa en konspirationsteori. Avslutningsvis upptäckte vi att videon är uppbyggd av sammankopplade händelser vilka bygger upp konspirationsteorin till en helhet som ämnar att väcka uppmärksamhet och möjligen förändra den nuvarande etablerade teorin kring att Cheopspyramiden var en gravkammare. / There is an ongoing public debate regarding desinformation on the internet and what consequences it might cause to society. On the internet, for example on YouTube, dissemination of information is possible to an wide audience without anyone reviewing or regulating the content which makes it easier to circulate desinformation.    This study analyses a conspiracy theory on YouTube through narrative analysis. The purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of a conspiracy theory and research how the narrative is constructed within the video, this is executed with theories from narratology and conspiracy theories. The study also wants to investigate the function of different actors within the video and their roles in the creation of a persuasive narrative. From this purpose we formulated our research questions, which are: What functions does the different actors within the video fulfill? Which narrative instruments does the producer use to question former developed research within the field? To approach the purpose and the formulated questions we research our empiric material with actantial model to look for narrative structures, usual characteristics of conspiracy theory and how mysteries is manifested in the video. The result of the study showed that the actantial model eased our structuring of the video and that the storyteller did possess an comprehensive control over the video. Through the analysis we discovered that all of the usual narrative characteristics of a narrative was not met and that goes for the formula of mystery as well. We did however conclude that the producer uses parts from both narrative and mystery to develop the conspiracy theory. Finally we identified that the video is created with connected events which are constructed to a whole that becomes a conspiracy theory which intend to raise attention and possibly change the current understanding of the function of the Cheops pyramid.

This thesis offers an insight in how information influence works in the digital modern age, through the use of strategic narratives in news reporting. The study uses a combination of a textual and narrative analysis in order to examine what kind of patterns are possible to distinguish in how the Russian state-funded news agencies RT and Sputnik are portraying Sweden in their reporting. Insights obtained by analyzing articles from the mentioned news outlets shows that four strategical ’master’-narratives can be found in the reporting: 1) Sweden is being ridiculed, 2) Sweden is portrayed as a collapsing state, 3) conspiracy theories about Sweden are made up and, 4) Russia is portrayed in friendly and peaceful terms. The analysis ultimately demonstrates how these four ‘master’-narratives can be understood as information produced in order to spread a negative image about Sweden and to promote a positive image of Russia. The study emphasizes the importance of continued research in the area and discusses the difficulties with addressing something that cannot be termed as fake news, but rather as fake narratives.

This work focuses on the issue of fake news and related disinformation in contemporary, especially electronic media. The aim of the thesis is to clarify the definition of fake news and their function in the context of media manipulation and to give a comprehensive picture of this issue. Fake news are also related with hoaxes, rumors, urban legends, conspiracy theories and more. This work also maps the incidence of fake news especially in the Czech environment, estimates the possible reach of false news to the audience and describes their characteristics. These characteristics include captions in the form of a clickbait, highlighting emotions, manipulation with lexical means and invective, misleading or completely not specified sources (and seeming authority) and the construction of reality by image materials. Another aim of this work is to delineate the problems that fake news affect. It includes violations of journalistic ethics, growing distrust in traditional media, possible influence on political preferences, violation of legislation or personalization of the content. The research is based on the analysis of a representative sample of fake news, their comparison and a survey of public opinion. In the end, this work also proposes solutions for a defense against fake news and prevent their...

In modern societies media have a central role as it is through the media that citizens in particular have access to information about their society. Information about society is crucial for citizens to be able to make thoughtful decisions in a democratic spirit. Political campaigns have started using personally targeted online advertising to reach new voters. This phenomenon is called “microtargeting” and the purpose is to identify individual voters that the parties are most likely to convince. Cambridge Analyticas operations, which are largely based on microtargeting, challenge democratic principles. This study purpose is divided in two parts. First is to map out and explain Cambridge Analyticas operations by analyzing from a democratic perspective. Second is to compile and systematize the proposed measures on democracy problems that are brought up in the debate about Cambridge Analytica. Idea analysis is the method of this paper, and it is of both descriptive and explanatory nature. It appears that Cambridge Analytica operations mainly undermines citizens' right to enlightened understanding and a free and factual debate. This undermines democratic principles in several ways. Furthermore, the studies show that the debate orbits around antitrust laws, how the legislation should formulate on how internet companies should handle personal information and what is the Internet companies own obligation in question. A smaller part of the debate also highlights the citizens' own capacity to be vigilant and critical of the Internet.