Policing the Truth How the War on Disinformation Became a War on Dissent
We are told that democracy is under threat because the very idea of ‘truth’ is in crisis. Fake news spreads unchecked, social media warps our sense of reality and the misinformed public are blamed for the resulting political division and instability. Governments and media institutions alike increasingly insist that the future of democracy depends on winning the ‘war on disinformation’.
But what if this diagnosis is wrong?
In Policing the Truth, Justin Schlosberg argues that the real danger lies not in the spread of disinformation but in the growing culture of information control. He reveals how powerful institutions across liberal and populist democracies increasingly determine what can be known, said and believed – while dissent and scepticism are routinely dismissed as threats to truth itself.
Drawing on years of rigorous original research, in-depth historical analysis and his own experiences as a self-described ‘rogue academic’– including sustained legal threats and public attacks triggered by research featured in this book – Schlosberg exposes the hidden mechanisms of a new form of McCarthyism that has taken root in Britain and beyond. As well as tracing the historical origins of this phenomenon, he explains why today’s battle over truth is, at its core, a struggle over who gets to define reality.
Policing the Truth is a timely and necessary intervention into one of the defining political and media debates of our age and offers a powerful new framework for understanding democracy and free speech.
Reviews
“Justin Schlosberg has shown enormous courage in exposing the unaccountable power of the media. This book is deep in its analysis and compelling in its original insights.”
Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and former leader of the Labour Party
“The media used to be open to all points of view, however heretical and diverse. It isn’t any more. Anyone who wants to understand the new rules of discourse and how they are policed needs to read this brave and thought-provoking book.”
Peter Oborne, author, journalist and former political commentator at the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and The Spectator
“Through a series of case studies, this book exposes attempts to control our thinking under the cover of ‘countering disinformation’. It is compulsively readable, deeply insightful and deserves to be translated into multiple languages.”
Professor James Curran, media academic, activist and author
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- Hardback, 256 pages
- ISBN: 9781837360888
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24 November 2026
Available to pre-order - £18.99
- eBook
- ISBN: 9781837360901
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24 November 2026
Available to pre-order - £13.99