Global disinformation campaigns and legal challenges

Abstract Recently, some countries have deployed global cyberattacks that not only impose destructive measures on the systems of industries or infrastructures, but also as a type of information warfare, including social networking service (SNS) and other media that affects election results or democratic processes, thereby becoming a threat to democracy. Thus, this kind of operation is recognized as “disinformation.” This paper demonstrates cases of disinformation in cyberspace and focuses on legal problems in international laws and countermeasures taken by legal systems in individual countries. Consequently, one finds that it is challenging to deal with disinformation on a national scale. As there is a limit regarding the regulations by international law at present, it is essential to provide national laws for its regulation. Here, the types of countermeasures are classified in order to find improved responses as the number of disinformation cases increases. Since regulations on disinformation could violate freedom of expression and democracy in some cases, subsequent sanctions against foreign state actors should be applied, and regulations on the content of media and online platforms need to be carefully put in place.