  The COVID-19 pandemic has been the subject of a vast amount of
misinformation, particularly in digital information environments, and major
social media platforms recently publicized some of the countermeasures they are
adopting. This presents an opportunity to examine the nature of the
misinformation and disinformation being produced, and the theoretical and
technological paradigm used to counter it. I argue that this approach is based
on a conception of misinformation as epistemic pollution that can only justify
a limited and potentially inadequate response , and that some of the measures
undertaken in practice outrun this. In fact, social networks manage ecological
and architectural conditions that influence discourse on their platforms in
ways that should motivate reconsideration of the justifications that ground
epistemic interventions to combat misinformation, and the types of intervention
that they warrant. The editorial role of platforms should not be framed solely
as the management of epistemic pollution, but instead as managing the epistemic
environment in which narratives and social epistemic processes take place.
There is an element of inevitable epistemic paternalism involved in this, and
exploration of the independent constraints on its justifiability can help
determine proper limits of its exercise in practice.
