La disinformazione come minaccia per la democrazia in Italia. Crisi della fiducia e rischi della società digitale

This contribution analyses disinformation as a factor of vulnerability in contemporary democracies, focusing on the relationship between informational disorder, the erosion of trust and the weakening of democratic cohesion. It examines disinformation activities conducted by foreign state actors against Italy and investigates how institutional actors involved in monitoring and countering the phenomenon interpret and problematize them. The article argues that transformations in the digital media ecosystem reshape the cognitive and symbolic mechanisms through which trust, shared orientations and democratic legitimacy are produced. The analysis combines scientific literature, national and supranational documentary sources, and qualitative evidence from semi-structured interviews with key informants in politics, defence, communication and research. The findings identify recurring dimensions: the framing of disinformation as a systemic, permanent and difficult-to-attribute threat; its effects on the credibility of information sources and institutional legitimacy; the governance difficulties it raises; and the preference for non securitarian responses based on social resilience, critical capacities and cognitive security. The article also discusses the ambivalent role of artificial intelligence, both as an amplifier of disinformation and as a possible countermeasure, while stressing the limits of purely technological solutions. Overall, informational disorder emerges not only as the circulation of false content, but as a broader condition of informational hypertrophy that opens multiple access points for strategic manipulation and deepens confusion in public opinion.