This think piece was written by Anuradha Ganapathy as part of our ‘Re-wiring India's Digitalising Economy for Women's Rights and Well-being’ project, supported by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the European Union.
The think piece employs a feminist commodity chain approach to examine disinformation in India and the Philippines, foregrounding the roles of gender, labor, and power in shaping digital misinformation economies.
Moving beyond platform-centric views, it situates disinformation within broader political, economic, and historical structures. Methodologically, the essay draws from feminist political economy to trace how disinformation labor is produced, organized, and legitimized across formal and informal networks. It identifies three intervention areas: the heterogeneous human architecture underpinning disinformation chains, the social reproductive dimensions of disinformation labor, and the gendered nature of identity-based disinformation. The paper broadly recommends centering marginalized communities, enhancing interdisciplinary research, critically evaluating policy frameworks, and promoting community-based, participatory initiatives across academia, civil society, and multilateral organizations to foster more equitable, context-sensitive responses to disinformation.
Read the full paper here.