Disinformation, Foreign Interference and the Right to Free Elections before the ECtHR in <i>Bradshaw and Others</i> v <i>United Kingdom</i>

In Bradshaw and Others v United Kingdom , the European Court of Human Rights recognised, for the first time, that disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference engage the right to free elections under Article 3 of Protocol 1 (P1‐3) of the European Convention on Human Rights. It further held that states may have a positive obligation to take measures to protect the integrity of electoral processes against such threats where there is a real risk that the ‘very essence’ of the P1‐3 right will be curtailed and deprived of its effectiveness. While Bradshaw is an important milestone in the emerging jurisprudence on disinformation and foreign interference, it is susceptible to critique along four lines: (i) it reveals a disconnect between the theory and practice of Convention rights; (ii) it leaves significant uncertainty across the Council of Europe about the existence, extent and fulfilment of states’ obligations to protect electoral integrity against such threats; (iii) the evidentiary threshold set by the Court poses a potentially insurmountable hurdle for future claimants, while the threshold for state compliance is comparatively low; and (iv) the Court missed the opportunity to elucidate the ‘public’ aspect of P1‐3 for citizens and states alike.