Laura DeNardis: Disinformation is not just about human content — it’s also about manipulating and co-opting the technical infrastructure that underlies everything.

Samantha Bradshaw: It’s easy to forget about the physical infrastructure of data centres, networking and cables wrapping around the world that make up the internet. But the internet doesn’t exist in the cloud — it lives in the physical realm and within geographic regions where domestic laws apply. In the essay Dr. Laura DeNardis and I wrote, we look at how disinformation can affect the internet’s underlying infrastructure.

Laura DeNardis: The internet is no longer just entered through a screen. It has diffused into the physical world all around us. Policy makers primarily view the disinformation problem as one of human speech issues in social media, and these really are critical issues that involve the nature of truth and democracy. But an even more consequential issue to society is that disinformation is being interjected into more invisible digital architectures.

Samantha Bradshaw: When we view platform governance at the infrastructure level, we open up a much broader discussion about how systems are designed and operated; what servers or services could be blocked or limited; and what hardware, such as 5G technology, can be deployed.

Laura DeNardis: Already, infrastructure is routinely co-opted to moderate content. This is why cybersecurity across all layers of technical architecture has to be part of the disinformation discussion.