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![handle is hein.journals/jicj20 and id is 1 raw text is:
International Criminal Justice
in an 'Age of Misinformation'
Guest Editors' Introduction
Birju Kotecha* and Daley J. Birkett**
1. Introduction
Today's information landscape is increasingly fragmented. Characterized by an
explosion of fast-moving information online and the accompanying threat of
misinformation and disinformation and coupled with diminishing public
trust in expertise, one thing is clear: public opinion is subject to considerable
fluctuation.1 This fluctuation is hardly surprising given that we live amid an
'infodemic', in which our opinions are influenced by a flood of febrile assertion,
speculation and audio-visual content in our various social media echo
chambers.2 Against this background, and in light of a so-called 'marketplace
of ideas' that has seemingly come to devalue 'truth',3 the boundaries
between argument, interpretation, misrepresentation and falsehood can be-
come blurred.
At the outset, it is important to be clear on the use of terminology. Taking
the most notable terms, one might make a straightforward distinction between
misinformation and disinformation. The former is to be understood as the
spread of false and inaccurate information, regardless of the intention of those
sending or sharing it, while disinformation refers to deliberate sharing of
* Senior Lecturer, Northumbria Law School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
[birju.kotecha@northumbria.ac.uk]
** Senior Lecturer, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. [daley.bir-
kett@mq.edu.au]
1 See, indicatively, C. O'Connor, and J.O. Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs
Spread (Yale University Press, 2019); T. Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against
Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (Oxford University Press, 2019); M. d'Ancona, Post-
Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back (Ebury Press, 2017).
2 On the term 'infodemic' and its origins, see B. Zimmer, 'Infodemic: When Unreliable
Information Spreads Far and Wide', The Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2020, available online
at https://www.wsj.com/articles/infodemic-when-unreliable-information-spreads-far-and-wide-
11583430244 (visited 28 February 2022).
3 As others have recalled, this image has frequently been used to suggest that competing ideas and
free debate lead to better understanding of the world around us: see e.g. S. Ingber, 'The Marketplace
of Ideas: a Legitimizing Myth', Duke Law Journal (1984) 1-91, at 2-3 (quoting, among others,
Abrams v. United States 250 U.S. 616 (1919), at 630 (Holmes, J., dissenting): 'the best test of truth
is the power of thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market').
Journal of International Criminal Justice 20 (2022), 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mgacOl9
@ The Author(s) (2022). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Advance Access publication 23 April 2022
For permissions, please email: joumals.permissions@oup.com](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jicj20&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)