"Legislation targeting “fake news” — a contested term used to reference both news and news providers that governments (or others) reject as well as disinformation campaigns — has increased significantly over the last few years, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. This study finds that even when technically aimed at curbing disinformation, the majority of “fake news” laws, either passed or actively considered from 2020 to 2023, lessen the protection of an independent press and risk the public’s open access to a plurality of fact-based news. Indeed, governments can — and have — used this type of legislation to label independent journalism as “fake news” or disinformation. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, among the 363 reporters jailed around the world in 2022, 39 were imprisoned for “fake news” or disinformation policy violations. Even within well-intended legislative policies, like Germany’s laws which focus on platform moderation of “illegal content” related to hate speech and Holocaust denial, concerns can arise over potential government censorship." (Page 1)

"This study included quantitative and qualitative analyses of 32 “fake news” legislative policies. Two content analysis coders compiled case data and coded for a range of variables including country, short and long titles of legislation, dates of legislation draft and latest update, legislation status, definitions of key terms (“news”/“journalism,” “fake news,” “journalists,” “news entities”/“publishers” and “platform”/“news intermediary”) and authorities responsible for overseeing each definition. Five test cases were coded by both coders simultaneously to assess intercoder reliability with 99.3% agreement." (Methods and data, page 17)