2024 Could Be "Acid Test" For Democracies Against The Threat Of Misinformation

More people across the world vote in elections in 2024 than in any other year in history. But rather than signalling the flourishing of global democracy, politicians and experts have warned that it could mean the world is more under threat from misinformation and disinformation than ever before.

The UK government must call a general election by the end of 2024, and will hold local elections and regional mayoral elections in spring. 

The polling of the British public is likely to clash with other elections around the world, with eight of the ten most populous countries in the world holding them next year, including the US, Russia, Mexico, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan. There will also be a European Parliament election and Brazil and Turkey are holding local and municipal elections in which the whole country can participate.

John Penrose, Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare and the UK’s former Anti-Corruption Champion, told PoliticsHome he believed the fact that so many elections will occur in the same year will present a huge challenge.

He said that while it was important to prevent foreign interference in domestic elections, there was a number of other types of groups that could present a threat via misinformation.

“It might be religious groups, commercial or organised criminal groups… all sorts of people have an interest in trying to sway public debates in a particular direction particularly at the time of an election,” he said.

“The stakes are about as high as they can possibly get and the next 12 to 15 months will be a real acid test about whether or not the democracies can protect the quality of their political debate and their free speech. And their adherence to truth [will be] evidence of how serious we are about