Disinformation

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Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. [1] [2] [3] Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. [4] Disinformation is implemented through attacks that weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies." [5]

Contents

In contrast, misinformation refers to inaccuracies that stem from inadvertent error. [6] Misinformation can be used to create disinformation when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated. [7] "Fake news" has sometimes been categorized as a type of disinformation, but scholars have advised not using these two terms interchangeably or using "fake news" altogether in academic writing since politicians have weaponized it to describe any unfavorable news coverage or information. [8]

Etymology

The Etymology of Disinformation by H.Newman as published in The Journal of Information Warfare. Elements of the word disinformation have their origins in Proto-Indo-European language family. The Latin 'dis' and 'in' and can both be considered to have Proto-Indo-European roots, 'forma' is considerably more obscure. The green box in the figure highlights the origin 'forma' is uncertain, however, it may have its roots in the Aristotelean concept of morphe (morphe) where something becomes a 'thing' when it has 'form' or substance. The Etymology of Disinformation.png
The Etymology of Disinformation by H.Newman as published in The Journal of Information Warfare. Elements of the word disinformation have their origins in Proto-Indo-European language family. The Latin 'dis' and 'in' and can both be considered to have Proto-Indo-European roots, 'forma' is considerably more obscure. The green box in the figure highlights the origin 'forma' is uncertain, however, it may have its roots in the Aristotelean concept of μορφή (morphe) where something becomes a 'thing' when it has 'form' or substance.

The English word disinformation comes from the application of the Latin prefix dis- to information making the meaning "reversal or removal of information". The rarely used word had appeared with this usage in print at least as far back as 1887. [10] [11] [12] [13]

Some consider it a loan translation of the Russian дезинформация, transliterated as dezinformatsiya, [1] [2] [3] apparently derived from the title of a KGB black propaganda department. [14] [2] [15] [1] Soviet planners in the 1950s defined disinformation as "dissemination (in the press, on the radio, etc.) of false reports intended to mislead public opinion." [16]

Disinformation first made an appearance in dictionaries in 1985, specifically, Webster's New College Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary. [17] In 1986, the term disinformation was not defined in Webster's New World Thesaurus or New Encyclopædia Britannica. [1] After the Soviet term became widely known in the 1980s, native speakers of English broadened the term as "any government communication (either overt or covert) containing intentionally false and misleading material, often combined selectively with true information, which seeks to mislead and manipulate either elites or a mass audience." [3]

By 1990, use of the term disinformation had fully established itself in the English language within the lexicon of politics. [18] By 2001, the term disinformation had come to be known as simply a more civil phrase for saying someone was lying. [19] Stanley B. Cunningham wrote in his 2002 book The Idea of Propaganda that disinformation had become pervasively used as a synonym for propaganda. [20]

Operationalization

The Shorenstein Center at Harvard University defines disinformation research as an academic field that studies “the spread and impacts of misinformation, disinformation, and media manipulation,” including “how it spreads through online and offline channels, and why people are susceptible to believing bad information, and successful strategies for mitigating its impact” [21] According to a 2023 research article published in New Media & Society, [4] disinformation circulates on social media through deception campaigns implemented in multiple ways including: astroturfing, conspiracy theories, clickbait, culture wars, echo chambers, hoaxes, fake news, propaganda, pseudoscience, and rumors.

In order to distinguish between similar terms, including misinformation and malinformation, scholars collectively agree on the definitions for each term as follows: (1) disinformation is the strategic dissemination of false information with the intention to cause public harm; [22] (2) misinformation represents the unintentional spread of false information; and (3) malinformation is factual information disseminated with the intention to cause harm, [23] [24] these terms are abbreviated 'DMMI'. [25]

Comparisons with propaganda

Whether and to what degree disinformation and propaganda overlap is subject to debate. Some (like U.S. Department of State) define propaganda as the use of non-rational arguments to either advance or undermine a political ideal, and use disinformation as an alternative name for undermining propaganda. [26] While others consider them to be separate concepts altogether. [27] One popular distinction holds that disinformation also describes politically motivated messaging designed explicitly to engender public cynicism, uncertainty, apathy, distrust, and paranoia, all of which disincentivize citizen engagement and mobilization for social or political change. [16]

Practice

Disinformation is the label often given to foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). [28] [29] Studies on disinformation are often concerned with the content of activity whereas the broader concept of FIMI is more concerned with the "behaviour of an actor" that is described through the military doctrine concept of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). [28]

Disinformation is primarily carried out by government intelligence agencies, but has also been used by non-governmental organizations and businesses. [30] Front groups are a form of disinformation, as they mislead the public about their true objectives and who their controllers are. [31] Most recently, disinformation has been deliberately spread through social media in the form of "fake news", disinformation masked as legitimate news articles and meant to mislead readers or viewers. [32] Disinformation may include distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or spreading dangerous rumours and fabricated intelligence. Use of these tactics can lead to blowback, however, causing such unintended consequences such as defamation lawsuits or damage to the dis-informer's reputation. [31]

Worldwide

Soviet disinformation

Former Romanian secret police senior official Ion Mihai Pacepa exposed disinformation history in his book Disinformation (2013). Ion Mihai Pacepa 1975cr.jpg
Former Romanian secret police senior official Ion Mihai Pacepa exposed disinformation history in his book Disinformation (2013).
Use of disinformation as a Soviet tactical weapon started in 1923, [34] when it became a tactic used in the Soviet political warfare called active measures . [35]

Russian disinformation

Russian disinformation campaigns have occurred in many countries. [36] [37] [38] [39] For example, disinformation campaigns led by Yevgeny Prigozhin have been reported in several African countries. [40] [41] Russia, however, denies that it uses disinformation to influence public opinion. [42]

American disinformation

How Disinformation Can Be Spread, explanation by U.S. Defense Department (2001) How Disinformation Can Be Spread.jpg
How Disinformation Can Be Spread, explanation by U.S. Defense Department (2001)

The United States Intelligence Community appropriated use of the term disinformation in the 1950s from the Russian dezinformatsiya, and began to use similar strategies [43] [44] during the Cold War and in conflict with other nations. [15] The New York Times reported in 2000 that during the CIA's effort to substitute Mohammed Reza Pahlavi for then-Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh, the CIA placed fictitious stories in the local newspaper. [15] Reuters documented how, subsequent to the 1979 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War, the CIA put false articles in newspapers of Islamic-majority countries, inaccurately stating that Soviet embassies had "invasion day celebrations". [15] Reuters noted a former U.S. intelligence officer said they would attempt to gain the confidence of reporters and use them as secret agents, to affect a nation's politics by way of their local media. [15]

In October 1986, the term gained increased currency in the U.S. when it was revealed that two months previously, the Reagan Administration had engaged in a disinformation campaign against then-leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. [45] White House representative Larry Speakes said reports of a planned attack on Libya as first broken by The Wall Street Journal on August 25, 1986, were "authoritative", and other newspapers including The Washington Post then wrote articles saying this was factual. [45] U.S. State Department representative Bernard Kalb resigned from his position in protest over the disinformation campaign, and said: "Faith in the word of America is the pulse beat of our democracy." [45]

The executive branch of the Reagan administration kept watch on disinformation campaigns through three yearly publications by the Department of State: Active Measures: A Report on the Substance and Process of Anti-U.S. Disinformation and Propaganda Campaigns (1986); Report on Active Measures and Propaganda, 1986–87 (1987); and Report on Active Measures and Propaganda, 1987–88 (1989). [43]

Response

Responses from cultural leaders

Pope Francis condemned disinformation in a 2016 interview, after being made the subject of a fake news website during the 2016 U.S. election cycle which falsely claimed that he supported Donald Trump. [46] [47] [48] He said the worst thing the news media could do was spread disinformation. He said the act was a sin, [49] [50] comparing those who spread disinformation to individuals who engage in coprophilia. [51] [52]

Ethics in warfare

In a contribution to the 2014 book Military Ethics and Emerging Technologies, writers David Danks and Joseph H. Danks discuss the ethical implications in using disinformation as a tactic during information warfare. [53] They note there has been a significant degree of philosophical debate over the issue as related to the ethics of war and use of the technique. [53] The writers describe a position whereby the use of disinformation is occasionally allowed, but not in all situations. [53] Typically the ethical test to consider is whether the disinformation was performed out of a motivation of good faith and acceptable according to the rules of war. [53] By this test, the tactic during World War II of putting fake inflatable tanks in visible locations on the Pacific Islands in order to falsely present the impression that there were larger military forces present would be considered as ethically permissible. [53] Conversely, disguising a munitions plant as a healthcare facility in order to avoid attack would be outside the bounds of acceptable use of disinformation during war. [53]

International agreements

In December 2023, the United States signed agreements with Japan and South Korea to jointly counter disinformation. [54] [55]

Research

A framework for how disinformation spreads in social media Disinformation and echo chambers.jpg
A framework for how disinformation spreads in social media

Research related to disinformation studies is increasing as an applied area of inquiry. [56] [57] The call to formally classify disinformation as a cybersecurity threat is made by advocates due to its increase in social networking sites. [58] Researchers working for the University of Oxford found that over a three-year period the number of governments engaging in online disinformation rose from 28 in 2017, to 40 in 2018, and 70 in 2019. Despite the proliferation of social media websites, Facebook and Twitter showed the most activity in terms of active disinformation campaigns. Techniques reported on included the use of bots to amplify hate speech, the illegal harvesting of data, and paid trolls to harass and threaten journalists. [59]

Whereas disinformation research focuses primarily on how actors orchestrate deceptions on social media, primarily via fake news, new research investigates how people take what started as deceptions and circulate them as their personal views. [5] As a result, research shows that disinformation can be conceptualized as a program that encourages engagement in oppositional fantasies (i.e., culture wars), through which disinformation circulates as rhetorical ammunition for never-ending arguments. [5] As disinformation entangles with culture wars, identity-driven controversies constitute a vehicle through which disinformation disseminates on social media. This means that disinformation thrives, not despite raucous grudges but because of them. The reason is that controversies provide fertile ground for never-ending debates that solidify points of view. [5]

Scholars have pointed out that disinformation is not only a foreign threat as domestic purveyors of disinformation are also leveraging traditional media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations, and television news media to disseminate false information. [60] Current research suggests right-wing online political activists in the United States may be more likely to use disinformation as a strategy and tactic. [61] Governments have responded with a wide range of policies to address concerns about the potential threats that disinformation poses to democracy, however, there is little agreement in elite policy discourse or academic literature as to what it means for disinformation to threaten democracy, and how different policies might help to counter its negative implications. [62]

Consequences of exposure to disinformation online

There is a broad consensus amongst scholars that there is a high degree of disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda online; however, it is unclear to what extent such disinformation has on political attitudes in the public and, therefore, political outcomes. [63] This conventional wisdom has come mostly from investigative journalists, with a particular rise during the 2016 U.S. election: some of the earliest work came from Craig Silverman at Buzzfeed News. [64] Cass Sunstein supported this in #Republic, arguing that the internet would become rife with echo chambers and informational cascades of misinformation leading to a highly polarized and ill-informed society. [65]

Research after the 2016 election found: (1) for 14 percent of Americans social media was their "most important" source of election news; 2) known false news stories "favoring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook, while those favoring Clinton were shared 8 million times"; 3) the average American adult saw fake news stories, "with just over half of those who recalled seeing them believing them"; and 4) people are more likely to "believe stories that favor their preferred candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social media networks." [66] Correspondingly, whilst there is wide agreement that the digital spread and uptake of disinformation during the 2016 election was massive and very likely facilitated by foreign agents, there is an ongoing debate on whether all this had any actual effect on the election. For example, a double blind randomized-control experiment by researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE), found that exposure to online fake news about either Trump or Clinton had no significant effect on intentions to vote for those candidates. Researchers who examined the influence of Russian disinformation on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential campaign found that exposure to disinformation was (1) concentrated among a tiny group of users, (2) primarily among Republicans, and (3) eclipsed by exposure to legitimate political news media and politicians. Finally, they find "no evidence of a meaningful relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior." [67] As such, despite its mass dissemination during the 2016 Presidential Elections, online fake news or disinformation probably did not cost Hillary Clinton the votes needed to secure the presidency. [68]

Research on this topic is continuing, and some evidence is less clear. For example, internet access and time spent on social media does not appear correlated with polarisation. [69] Further, misinformation appears not to significantly change political knowledge of those exposed to it. [70] There seems to be a higher level of diversity of news sources that users are exposed to on Facebook and Twitter than conventional wisdom would dictate, as well as a higher frequency of cross-spectrum discussion. [71] [72] Other evidence has found that disinformation campaigns rarely succeed in altering the foreign policies of the targeted states. [73]

Research is also challenging because disinformation is meant to be difficult to detect and some social media companies have discouraged outside research efforts. [74] For example, researchers found disinformation made "existing detection algorithms from traditional news media ineffective or not applicable...[because disinformation] is intentionally written to mislead readers...[and] users' social engagements with fake news produce data that is big, incomplete, unstructured, and noisy." [74] Facebook, the largest social media company, has been criticized by analytical journalists and scholars for preventing outside research of disinformation. [75] [76] [77] [78]

Alternative perspectives and critiques

Writing in Misinformation Review at Harvard Kennedy School and applying critical theory, Rachel Kuo and Alice Marwick criticize the traditional framing of disinformation as being limited to technology platforms, removed from its wider political context and inaccurately implying that the media landscape was otherwise well-functioning. Focusing on the United States, they argue that "disinformation narratives build on and reify pre-existing ideologies, frequently involving race and inequality" via "the repetition of particular narratives and stereotypes"; that "legacy media has played [a role] in maintaining inequality"; and that "corporations, state actors, and politicians have always spread false and misleading narratives to achieve their ideological goals." As examples, they cite stereotypes of Blacks as drug dealers, the superpredator myth, QAnon, false claims to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, censorship of and false claims about the 2003 Iraq war itself, euphemisms about the incarceration of Japanese Americans, the Welfare queen stereotype, anti-immigrant stereotypes, Xenophobic and racist narratives surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, false information shared by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reagan administration response to HIV/AIDS (including stigma against Haitians by the U.S. CDC), and Cold War propaganda. More generally, they note that "knowledge and information production is an active process that is political, serving and benefitting specific interests", citing media forms that supported colonialism; scientific racism; cultural imperialism and cultural genocide. The authors provide three recommendations:

  1. Moving beyond fact-checking and media literacy – which the authors argue shift liability to individuals to be well-informed – and towards analysis on "power structures that facilitate disinformation's spread, such as large technology companies, state actors, and media and information systems."
  2. Moving beyond technical solutions – which may worsen present inequalities – and towards analysis of power dynamics between "technological solutions and broader cultural and social forces."
  3. Viewing the spread white supremacy and ethnic nationalism as a worldwide issue, via grassroots organizing and community organizing to address misinformation, disinformation and wider social inequality; interdisciplinary research involving history, political economy, ethnic studies, feminist studies, and science and technology studies; and "transnational approaches to disinformation that take into consideration cross-cutting geopolitical formations and imperial histories."

The authors, along with Shanice Jones Cameron and Moira Weigel, have published a syllabus based on this approach. [79] [80]

Other criticisms of disinformation studies include: "the field possesses a simplistic understanding of the effects of media technologies; overemphasizes platforms and underemphasizes politics; focuses too much on the United States and Anglocentric analysis; has a shallow understanding of political culture and culture in general; lacks analysis of race, class, gender, and sexuality as well as status, inequality, social structure, and power; has a thin understanding of journalistic processes; and, has progressed more through the exigencies of grant funding than the development of theory and empirical findings." [81]

Under a similar framework, writing for the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Heidi Tworek notes how the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool originated as a response to market domination by Western news agencies (Reuters, Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse), which led to "chronic under-reporting on many parts of the world beyond North America and Europe", "concerns about cultural imperialism and Third World dependency on Western news" and "distorted reporting." She concludes: "To address how platforms contribute to global disinformation means confronting that past." [82]

Gendered-based disinformation (GBD) or gendered disinformation has been broadly defined as "the dissemination of false or misleading information attacking women (especially political leaders, journalists and public figures), basing the attack on their identity as women." [83] [84]

A project led by Herman Wasserman at the University of Cape Town studied responses to information disorder throughout the Global South, noting that the majority of studies are based on the Global North, even though information disorder is a global problem. [85]

Strategies for spreading disinformation

Disinformation attack

The research literature on how disinformation spreads is growing. [63] Studies show that disinformation spread in social media can be classified into two broad stages: seeding and echoing. [5] "Seeding," when malicious actors strategically insert deceptions, like fake news, into a social media ecosystem, and "echoing" is when the audience disseminates disinformation argumentatively as their own opinions often by incorporating disinformation into a confrontational fantasy.

Internet manipulation

Internet manipulation refers to the co-optation of online digital technologies, including algorithms, social bots, and automated scripts, for commercial, social, military, or political purposes. [86] Internet and social media manipulation are the prime vehicles for spreading disinformation due to the importance of digital platforms for media consumption and everyday communication. [87] When employed for political purposes, internet manipulation may be used to steer public opinion, [88] polarise citizens, [89] circulate conspiracy theories, [90] and silence political dissidents. Internet manipulation can also be done for profit, for instance, to harm corporate or political adversaries and improve brand reputation. [91] Internet manipulation is sometimes also used to describe the selective enforcement of Internet censorship [92] [93] or selective violations of net neutrality. [94]

Studies show four main methods of seeding disinformation online: [63]

  1. Selective censorship
  2. Manipulation of search rankings
  3. Hacking and releasing
  4. Directly Sharing Disinformation

See also

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Media manipulation</span> Techniques in which partisans create an image that favours their interests

    Media manipulation refers to orchestrated campaigns in which actors exploit the distinctive features of broadcasting mass communications or digital media platforms to mislead, misinform, or create a narrative that advance their interests and agendas.

    Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such checking done in-house by the publisher to prevent inaccurate content from being published; when the text is analyzed by a third party, the process is called external fact-checking.

    Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is deliberately deceptive and propagated information. Early definitions of misinformation focused on statements that were patently false, incorrect, or not factual. Therefore, a narrow definition of misinformation refers to the information's quality, whether inaccurate, incomplete, or false. However, recent studies define misinformation per deception rather than informational accuracy because misinformation can include falsehoods, selective truths, and half-truths.

    State-sponsored Internet propaganda is Internet manipulation and propaganda that is sponsored by a state.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Propaganda in Russia</span>

    The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of modern Russian 'political warfare'". Notably, contemporary Russian propaganda promotes the cult of personality of Vladimir Putin and positive views of Soviet history. Russia has established a number of organizations, such as the Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests, the Russian web brigades, and others that engage in political propaganda to promote the views of the Russian government.

    Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Myanmar, and the United States. Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia, North Macedonia, and Romania, among others. Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.

    A troll farm or troll factory is an institutionalised group of internet trolls that seeks to interfere in political opinions and decision-making.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Fake news</span> False or misleading information presented as real

    Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term "fake news" was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information presented as news. It has also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavorable to them. Further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. In some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.

    Internet manipulation refers to the co-optation of online digital technologies, including algorithms, social bots, and automated scripts, for commercial, social, military, or political purposes. Internet and social media manipulation are the prime vehicles for spreading disinformation due to the importance of digital platforms for media consumption and everyday communication. When employed for political purposes, internet manipulation may be used to steer public opinion, polarise citizens, circulate conspiracy theories, and silence political dissidents. Internet manipulation can also be done for profit, for instance, to harm corporate or political adversaries and improve brand reputation. Internet manipulation is sometimes also used to describe the selective enforcement of Internet censorship or selective violations of net neutrality.

    <i>Palmer Report</i> American liberal fake news website

    The Palmer Report is an American liberal fake news website, founded in 2016 by Bill Palmer. It is known for making unsubstantiated or false claims, producing hyperpartisan content, and publishing conspiracy theories, especially on matters relating to Donald Trump and Russia. Fact-checkers have debunked numerous Palmer Report stories, and organizations including the Columbia Journalism Review and the German Marshall Fund have listed the site among false content producers or biased websites.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupy Democrats</span> American left-wing political Facebook page and website

    Occupy Democrats is an American left-wing media outlet built around a Facebook page and corresponding website. Established in 2012, it publishes false information, hyperpartisan content, and clickbait. Posts originating from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.

    Fake news in India refers to fostering and spread of False information in the country which is spread through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.

    Fake news in the Philippines refers to the general and widespread misinformation or disinformation in the country by various actors. It has been problematic in the Philippines where social media and alike plays a key role in influencing topics and information ranging from politics, health, belief, religion, current events, aid, lifestyle, elections and others. Recently, it has evolved to be a rampant issue against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the 2022 Philippine general election.

    Information laundering is the surfacing of news, false or otherwise, from unverified sources into the mainstream. In advancing disinformation in such a way that makes it accepted as ostensibly legitimate information, information laundering resembles money laundering—the transforming of illicit funds into ostensibly legitimate funds.

    Disinformation attacks are strategic deception campaigns involving media manipulation and internet manipulation, to disseminate misleading information, aiming to confuse, paralyze, and polarize an audience. Disinformation can be considered an attack when it occurs as an adversarial narrative campaign that weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgements—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies. Disinformation attacks use media manipulation to target broadcast media like state-sponsored TV channels and radios. Due to the increasing use of internet manipulation on social media, they can be considered a cyber threat Digital tools such as bots, algorithms, and AI technology, along with human agents including influencers, spread and amplify disinformation to micro-target populations on online platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

    Algorithmic radicalization is the concept that recommender algorithms on popular social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook drive users toward progressively more extreme content over time, leading to them developing radicalized extremist political views. Algorithms record user interactions, from likes/dislikes to amount of time spent on posts, to generate endless media aimed to keep users engaged. Through echo chamber channels, the consumer is driven to be more polarized through preferences in media and self-confirmation.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine</span>

    As part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian state and state-controlled media have spread disinformation in an information war. Much of the news about military propaganda during Russia's invasion of Ukraine focused on Russian disinformation. Ukrainian media and politicians have also been accused of using propaganda and deception, although such efforts have been compared to the Russian disinformation campaign as more limited. Both Russia and Ukraine exaggerate the losses they claim to have inflicted on each other.

    Russian disinformation campaigns have occurred in many countries. For example, disinformation campaigns led by Yevgeny Prigozhin have been reported in several African countries. Russia, however, denies that it uses disinformation to influence public opinion.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Disclose.tv</span> German disinformation outlet

    Disclose.tv is a disinformation outlet based in Germany that presents itself as a news aggregator. It is known for promoting conspiracy theories and fake news, including COVID-19 misinformation and anti-vaccine narratives.

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