Restoring the Social Contract: Addressing Information Disorders and Human Rights in the Post-Truth Era

The concept of post-truth challenges the foundational principles of the social contract by undermining the shared epistemology—the common understanding of facts—required for a coherent and functioning society. The threats posed by the post-truth environment erode the integrity of information, leading to the decay of democratic norms and the societal fabric itself. Information disorders, on the other hand, is an umbrella concept encompassing misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report ranks "misinformation" and "disinformation" as the foremost global risks over the next two years, ahead of extreme weather events and social polarization. Information disorder profoundly weakens democracy, exacerbates polarization, and poses a significant human security problem. Crucially, information disorder is characterized as a violation of fundamental human rights, including the right to vote and stand for election, by manipulating voters and jeopardizing the legitimacy of democratic processes. It also constrains the capabilities of individuals, limiting their freedom to make informed choices and live the life they truly value. Within the context of the Anthropocene, the spread of misinformation regarding critical issues such as climate change impedes unified, effective action against global environmental threats, thereby posing a threat to environmental security. This threat environment underpins the "post-truth" condition, where objective facts are less influential than personal beliefs and emotions in shaping public opinion, challenging long-held assumptions about reason and scientific consensus. This dynamic is leveraged by populist movements using simple, emotional narratives that exploit cognitive features like confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, science denialism—challenging consensus on issues like climate change, evolution, and vaccines—is exacerbated when populist rhetoric sows distrust in expertise and mainstream institutions. Drawing on the Bioecological Model utilized by the RESAID project, this paper examines how information disorders function as human rights violations, specifically infringing upon the rights to health, free election, and non-discrimination. It posits that current information ecosystems, driven by the attention economy and algorithmic polarization, constitute a form of "epistemic injustice" that erodes the trust necessary for a functional democracy. Furthermore, the paper evaluates "active inoculation" (or prebunking) through gamification as a critical practice for restoring this social contract. Analyzing interventions like Bad News, Go Viral!, and Harmony Square, the paper explores how gamified simulations allow citizens to simulate the role of manipulators. Finally, it critically assesses the limitations of these interventions, arguing that while they build individual resilience, they must be coupled with structural governance (such as the EU’s Digital Services Act) to fully repair the democratic social contract. A renewed social contract requires a whole-of-society approach that combines legal regulation of platforms with bottom-up cognitive resilience strategies.