Laws to ban disinformation and misinformation are being introduced across the West, with the partial exception being the U.S., which has the First Amendment so the techniques to censor have had to be more clandestine.

In Europe, the U.K. and Australia, where free speech is not as overtly protected, governments have legislated directly. The European Commission is now applying the “Digital Services Act,” a thinly disguised censorship law.

In Australia, the government is seeking to provide the Australian Communications and Media Authority with “new powers to hold digital platforms to account and improve efforts to combat harmful misinformation and disinformation.”