The Politics of Content Trust: Reshaping Digital Information Governance
How can we rebuild faith in a fractured digital landscape?
As misinformation becomes more sophisticated, the Provenancefortrust program is moving beyond simple technical fixes to explore the human and political dynamics of digital authenticity.
Led by the médialab at Sciences Po, our research investigates how provenance indicators—digital signals of an asset's origin—actually change the way users perceive and share information.
Experimental Research: Measuring the Impact on Trust
Our experimental research component is a global effort. In collaboration with NYU Abu Dhabi and the University of Bern, we are conducting cross-country studies to determine the real-world effectiveness of content tagging.
Trust and Sharing Dynamics: We examine the conditions under which these technologies foster credibility or, conversely, trigger unintended doubt.
The "Overshoot" Risk: Research shows that while provenance labels (like C2PA or JTI certifications) can mitigate trust in fake composites, they can also confuse users, leading them to disbelieve honest media if the labels are too complex.
Identifying Limits: Our aim is to pinpoint not only what works but also the "unintended consequences" of a transparent ecosystem, such as user fatigue or the "liar's dividend."
Infrastructures of Authenticity & Governance
Beyond the laboratory, this project reflects on the creation of infrastructures of authenticity. These are the digital "rails"—the code, policies, and standards—that intervene in our everyday judgments of what is reliable.
Shaping Digital Information Governance
This work is defining a new era of digital information governance. We are moving from a reactive model of content moderation to a proactive model of verified origin.
Judgment Interventions: How do embedded metadata footprints influence your "gut feeling" about a news story?
Reliability Frameworks: We are assessing how these technical infrastructures can support the EU AI Act and other emerging global standards for transparency.
The Provenance programme, supported by the French Ministry of Culture, is not just building tools - it is building the foundation for a more honest internet.