ABSTRACT
This chapter dives into the intersection between data protection and regulatory disinformation strategies from a polycentric approach to data governance. Our analysis stems from the premise that state regulation of disinformation is both one of multiple concerns (in relation to the spectrum of institutional and societal countermeasures against disinformation) and also a strain of debates marked by different perspectives (external and internal; data as a problem and ‘a solution’; as an instrument and as a target of regulation). The goal of the chapter is to approach the main overlaps between data governance and disinformation countermeasures, notably statutory regulation. By acknowledging the relevance of data-based content distribution in disinformation strategies, we address data as a target for regulation by approaching the potential benefits and compromises of general data protection frameworks and of two strains of regulatory strategies recently proposed in different legal contexts: traceability (the trackers) and limitation of microtargeting (the chasers). Considering how such strategies approach data as both objects and instruments of regulation, the chapter highlights the ambiguities in protecting and threatening data protection at the same time, in the name of the same regulatory rationale: preventing the spread of disinformation.
