State responses to disinformation: How to measure the risk to freedom of expression [Dataset]

The dataset introduces and operationalizes a novel composite indicator—the Risk to Freedom of Expression (RFE) score—grounded in international human rights standards. The RFE score evaluates disinformation policies across three core dimensions: (1) the clarity of disinformation definitions, (2) the degree of centralization in regulatory authority, and (3) the strictness and proportionality of enforcement measures. Each policy is systematically coded according to these criteria. The dataset contains 50 policy responses adopted by 12 democratic countries between 2010 and 2024. It includes both the coded variables used to construct the RFE index and supplementary variables capturing the diversity and type of policy approaches, such as media literacy initiatives, fact-checking mechanisms, platform regulation, and counter-disinformation campaigns. This dataset reuses and extends a subset of data from Cipers et al., 2023. The author updated the dataset with new observations, recoded variables, and developed additional indicators (including the RFE index).