>Anecdotally, it seems that the more the internet has expanded our ability to communicate, the more widespread misinformation has gotten.

I don't think this is the right conclusion. After thinking about it more, it's not like the internet is patient zero for conspiracies and misinformation. It's just that the internet has exposed to the rest of us how common it is for people to hold such beliefs.

I think it's more than just us noticing such beliefs for the first time. More people than before seem to be acting on misinformation, which would be apparent even without knowing their private beliefs.

Is/was there less misinformation among a population living under strong censorship? We have several examples to choose from, and I'd wager there's more, at any point in history compared to freer societies.

> Anecdotally, it seems that the more the internet has expanded our ability to communicate, the more widespread misinformation has gotten.

I completely agree, but why should we assume falsehoods and truth travel at the same rate? History would suggest otherwise.

No one here is advocating strong censorship though, and there is a massive chasm between banning specific topics during a pandemic and having generally strong censorship.

This slippery slope is fallacious.

You're declaring the opposite, but for a proponent of the slippery slope argument this would be a perfect example of going down the slippery slope. First came banning hate speech, now comes COVID, what's next?

I wasn't making a slippery slope argument, I'm answering to whether there is more or less misinformation under a freer or a less free society. The easiest and best place to start is always going to be at the more extreme ends of something.