"[The book] begins by detailing the conceptual apparatus needed to distinguish various forms of information disorder and to clarify why the definitions chosen matter for research design and policy calibration. It then examines the socio-technical environment in which disinformation circulates, focusing on the construction of credibility, attention dynamics, and audience practices, which shape receptivity and retransmission. Subsequent chapters address methodological approaches for studying disinformation, including empirical mapping and case-oriented analyses, and develop accounts of coordinated influence practices which connect micro-level content features to macro-level strategic objectives such as polarization and distrust in institutions. Finally, the book turns to governance, analyzing legal frameworks and regulatory practice, with particular attention to developments in Europe and national-level implementation, which illustrate both the promise and the limitations of current approaches in addressing systemic risks without normalizing broad restrictions on speech. This book’s guiding assumption is that regulation and governance in this field have to be understood as a problem of institutional design under conditions of uncertainty, because both overreaction and underreaction carry structural costs: overly broad legal categories risk creating chilling effects and shifting decisions into opaque private enforcement, whereas an exclusive reliance on voluntary measures may fail to address systemic amplification mechanisms and repeated campaign dynamics. In this respect, the book treats freedom of expression not as a rhetorical counterweight to regulation, but as a constitutive constraint that has to be translated into concrete safeguards, procedural guarantees, and proportionality-sensitive tools, especially where interventions target lawful but harmful forms of communication." (Introduction, page 11)