@inproceedings{bassi-etal-2026-combating,
title = "Combating Disinformation: Is There No Alternative?",
author = "Bassi, Davide and
Fomsgaard, S{\o}ren Kirkegaard and
Marino, Erik Bran and
Laken, Katarina",
editor = "Frenda, Simona and
Stranisci, Marco Antonio and
Ashraf, Shaina and
Ren, Ada and
Konstas, Ioannis and
Naseem, Usman",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Information Disorder ({I}n{D}or) @ {LREC} 2026",
month = may,
year = "2026",
address = "Palma de Mallorca, Spain",
publisher = "ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.indor-1.1/",
doi = "10.63317/3qcppw2gpn3p",
pages = "1--15",
ISBN = "978-2-493814-87-6",
abstract = "This position paper critiques the dominance of detection-centered approaches in misinformation research. We argue that the prevailing paradigm treats information disorders as a content-level anomaly to be identified and suppressed, thereby obscuring the structural conditions under which different forms of information disorders emerge and resonate. Drawing on critical anthropology, we propose an alternative ``clinical'' model: information disorders should be understood not only as informational distortion, but as a syndrome with complex causes embedded in contexts of economic precarity, institutional distrust, and informational inequality. Treating detection as the ends rather than the means of intervention risks misguiding our efforts. Rather than positioning NLP primarily as a tool for boundary enforcement, we outline a reorientation toward structural diagnosis: diversifying data beyond WEIRD contexts, extracting socioeconomic and trust-related signals from discourse, and integrating computational outputs within interdisciplinary causal frameworks. Under this model, detection becomes a means for an epidemiology of discourse, subordinated to the broader objective of cultivating long-term epistemic resilience in our online environments."
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<abstract>This position paper critiques the dominance of detection-centered approaches in misinformation research. We argue that the prevailing paradigm treats information disorders as a content-level anomaly to be identified and suppressed, thereby obscuring the structural conditions under which different forms of information disorders emerge and resonate. Drawing on critical anthropology, we propose an alternative “clinical” model: information disorders should be understood not only as informational distortion, but as a syndrome with complex causes embedded in contexts of economic precarity, institutional distrust, and informational inequality. Treating detection as the ends rather than the means of intervention risks misguiding our efforts. Rather than positioning NLP primarily as a tool for boundary enforcement, we outline a reorientation toward structural diagnosis: diversifying data beyond WEIRD contexts, extracting socioeconomic and trust-related signals from discourse, and integrating computational outputs within interdisciplinary causal frameworks. Under this model, detection becomes a means for an epidemiology of discourse, subordinated to the broader objective of cultivating long-term epistemic resilience in our online environments.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Combating Disinformation: Is There No Alternative?
%A Bassi, Davide
%A Fomsgaard, Søren Kirkegaard
%A Marino, Erik Bran
%A Laken, Katarina
%Y Frenda, Simona
%Y Stranisci, Marco Antonio
%Y Ashraf, Shaina
%Y Ren, Ada
%Y Konstas, Ioannis
%Y Naseem, Usman
%S Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Information Disorder (InDor) @ LREC 2026
%D 2026
%8 May
%I ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)
%C Palma de Mallorca, Spain
%@ 978-2-493814-87-6
%F bassi-etal-2026-combating
%X This position paper critiques the dominance of detection-centered approaches in misinformation research. We argue that the prevailing paradigm treats information disorders as a content-level anomaly to be identified and suppressed, thereby obscuring the structural conditions under which different forms of information disorders emerge and resonate. Drawing on critical anthropology, we propose an alternative “clinical” model: information disorders should be understood not only as informational distortion, but as a syndrome with complex causes embedded in contexts of economic precarity, institutional distrust, and informational inequality. Treating detection as the ends rather than the means of intervention risks misguiding our efforts. Rather than positioning NLP primarily as a tool for boundary enforcement, we outline a reorientation toward structural diagnosis: diversifying data beyond WEIRD contexts, extracting socioeconomic and trust-related signals from discourse, and integrating computational outputs within interdisciplinary causal frameworks. Under this model, detection becomes a means for an epidemiology of discourse, subordinated to the broader objective of cultivating long-term epistemic resilience in our online environments.
%R 10.63317/3qcppw2gpn3p
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.indor-1.1/
%U https://doi.org/10.63317/3qcppw2gpn3p
%P 1-15
Markdown (Informal)
[Combating Disinformation: Is There No Alternative?](https://aclanthology.org/2026.indor-1.1/) (Bassi et al., InDor 2026)
ACL
- Davide Bassi, Søren Kirkegaard Fomsgaard, Erik Bran Marino, and Katarina Laken. 2026. Combating Disinformation: Is There No Alternative?. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Information Disorder (InDor) @ LREC 2026, pages 1–15, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA).