Healthy Conversations? Selected Trends in Covid-19-Related (Dis)Information Governance on Platforms

While the Covid-19 pandemic has forced schools, many jobs and most social interactions to go online, the transformative power of online communication is not a new phenomenon. Already in 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) noted that the Internet “has now become one of the principal means by which individuals exercise their right to freedom to receive and impart information and ideas, providing [...] essential tools for participation in activities and discussions concerning political issues and issues of general interest.”1 A lot of this communication takes place in online settings that are ruled and regulated by private companies.