Expert Survey on the Global Information Environment 2023: Lessons for Technology Policy and Design

The 2023 IPIE Expert Survey identifies the availability of accurate information and diversity of voices as critical features of a healthy information environment. Experts across different political regimes consistently view social media platforms and politicians as the primary threats to this environment, with specific concerns regarding the lack of accountability for social media companies and the risks of poorly designed AI-powered content moderation. The report argues that improving the global information environment requires a shift in focus toward enhancing technical infrastructure and data accuracy over the development of new content moderation policies.

• Experts identify the availability of accurate information and diversity of voices as the most critical elements for a healthy information environment. Specifically, 62% of the 289 respondents ranked the availability of accurate information among the top five most important elements, with 21% ranking it first. Other highly ranked elements include diversity of voices (50%), information literacy/education (45%), technical infrastructure or reliability (39%), diversity of media ownership (37%), and accountability (36%).
• Social media platforms and politicians are perceived as the most significant threats to a healthy information environment across all political regimes. In democracies, politicians were flagged by 31% of experts, while social media platforms were flagged by 33% of experts studying both democracies and autocracies.
• Perceptions of threats vary by regime type: experts studying closed and electoral autocracies view local governments (17% and 21% respectively) and state-backed media as greater threats than those studying democracies. Conversely, experts in electoral and liberal democracies view foreign governments as more threatening (6% and 7% respectively) than terrorist groups or local governments.
• There is significant expert concern regarding the content moderation industry, specifically the inability to hold social media companies accountable (66% agreement) and the use of poorly designed AI-powered content moderation (55% agreement).
• The report concludes that enhancing technical infrastructure and the availability of accurate data has more potential to improve the global information environment than the current focus on creating new policies and content moderation measures.

APA

Au, H., Elswah, M., Valenzuela, S., Chun, W. H. K., Kim, Y. M., & Howard, P. (2023). Expert Survey on the Global Information Environment 2023: Lessons for Technology Policy and Design. International Panel on the Information Environment. https://www.ipie.info/research/sfp2023-2

Chicago

Au, Hubert, Mona Elswah, Sebastián Valenzuela, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Young Mie Kim, and Philip Howard. Expert Survey on the Global Information Environment 2023: Lessons for Technology Policy and Design. International Panel on the Information Environment, 2023. https://www.ipie.info/research/sfp2023-2.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{au2023expert, author = {Au, Hubert and Elswah, Mona and Valenzuela, Sebastián and Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong and Kim, Young Mie and Howard, Philip}, title = {{Expert Survey on the Global Information Environment 2023: Lessons for Technology Policy and Design}}, institution = {International Panel on the Information Environment}, year = {2023}, url = {https://www.ipie.info/research/sfp2023-2}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }