Silencing falsehoods: Enhancing the EU’s unmuting power through tackling gendered disinformation

Gendered disinformation is an acute threat to public discourse. Women and gender-diverse individuals who actively express their opinions in a public setting are systematically subjected to false or misleading allegations seeking to silence them or undermine their credibility. This chapter examines whether the EU’s emergent anti-disinformation framework is capable of adequately addressing gender-related threats and how this framework could be further developed to “unmute” the voices of those affected by them. It contends that explicit recognition of the phenomenon of gendered disinformation and more targeted measures for countering it are instrumental in strengthening the EU’s aspiration to protect democracy and ensure a level playing field for the robust exchange of information and ideas.