Fake news and democracy. A lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic

The growing digital revolution is more and more causing a significant evolution of the communication networks compared to the past. Information via web has becomes more fluid but makes it more difficult to evaluate source and reliability of information. Using new technologies and generative Artificial Intelligence favors the spread of fake news and can impact the cornerstones of democracy, affecting fundamental rights and crucial relationships such as that between science and law. The legal, political and social effects of false information flow represent a big problem for civil societies by generating internal polarization phenomena in addition to interference in elections and democratic dynamics. Fake news cannot be addressed only with technological tools, because of their internal limits, but requires a regulatory system aimed at mitigating the side effects produced in terms of destabilization of democratic orders. Starting from both notion and meanings of infodemic, what remedies? What regulation for providers? How to make social media responsible for respecting the democratic order? Solutions merely based on sanctions are insufficient. The best possible remedy could be the homeopathic one, countering lie with truth and showing yourself to be more credible than those who disseminate false information, in the light of the techniques, purposes and consequences of each news