Although it may sound cheering and patriotic, it is not necessarily true that the best solution to “bad speech” is “more speech,” on the theory that truth would inevitably win out over lies. Recent empirical research has shown that, at least with scientific disinformation, lies are quite salient, and once an audience hears disinformation, a predictable percentage will simply believe it no matter what correcting information might later be offered.51 Although there are steps one can take to mitigate this effect, we cannot debunk our way out of an infodemic. One doesn’t fix a polluted information
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