The problem of fake news and other contentious online content is one of our most pressing challenges - it is widely believed to have played a major role in the election of President Donald Trump, the outcome of the Brexit Referendum, and in general threatens the healthy functioning of news media in modern democracy.

Our panellists will discuss the risks of deceptive content (both mis and dis information) and will examine what a healthy and mature democracy such as the United Kingdom should do to combat those risks while protecting the rights of individuals and political parties to engage in open and free political debate.

Meet our speakers and chair

Kate Klonick (@Klonick) is an Assistant Professor at St. John's University Law School and an Affiliate Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. Her research on networked technologies' effect on social norm enforcement, freedom of expression, and private governance has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, The New Yorker, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian and numerous other publications. 

Andrew Murray (@AndrewDMurray) is Professor of Law at LSE with particular reference to New Media and Technology Law. He is also Deputy Head of the Department. In 2018/19 he was the specialist advisor to the House of Lords Communications Committee inquiry “Regulating in a Digital World”.

Chi Onwurah (@ChiOnwurah) is the Shadow Minister for Science, Research & Digital and the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central. Prior to this she was Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy, Science and Innovation.

Jeremy Horder is Professor of Criminal Law at LSE. He was Chairman of Oxford’s Faculty of Law from 1998-2000. From 2005-2010, he was a Law Commissioner for England and Wales, with responsibility for criminal law reform, before becoming Edmund Davies Professor of Criminal Law at King’s College London, from 2010-2013.

More about this event

The Department of Law (@LSELaw) is one of the world's top law schools with an international reputation for the quality of its teaching and legal research. Our community is one of the largest in the School, and has played a major role in policy debates, policy-making and the education of lawyers and law teachers globally.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from What is to be Done About Fake News in Politics?

A video of this event is available to watch at What is to be Done About Fake News in Politics?

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.