Digital Populist Abuse of Free Speech Clauses and Disinformation: An US–EU Analysis

Abstract This article investigates the constitutional narratives on freedom of expression employed by digital populist movements in the United States and Italy to oppose fact checking on social media platforms, which is where much of their political propaganda circulates. It argues that the platformisation of the public sphere has created a disintermediated media environment ideally suited to populist disinformation and post-truth discourse. Building on existing scholarship that characterises the populist constitutional approach as ‘mimetic’ and ‘parasitic’, the paper explores how digital populism exploits freedom of expression clauses to resist measures – whether public or private – aimed at countering disinformation on social media. Using prototypical cases from the United States and the European Union, it compares constitutional frameworks, populist strategies concerning platform regulation, and efforts to combat online disinformation, ultimately concluding that digital populists – an expression of media populism – employ constitutional rhetoric to shield social media spaces from any intermediation grounded in fact-based politics.