Disinformation
For the company, see DisinfoDisinformation, in the context of
espionage,
military intelligence, and
propaganda, is the spreading of deliberately false information to mislead an enemy as to one's position or course of action. It also includes the distortion of true information in such a way as to render it useless.
Disinformation techniques may also be found in commerce and government, used by one group to try to undermine the position of a competitor.
Unlike
propaganda or the
Big Lie technique designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting conflicting information or supporting false conclusions. A third technique of concealing facts, or
censorship is also used if the group can affect such control. When channels of information cannot be completely closed, they can be rendered useless by filling them with disinformation, effectively lowering their
signal-to-noise ratio.
The
Cold War made disinformation a recognized military and political tactic, though disinformation is generally more subtle and designed to remain unnoticed by the target audience.
Disinformation should not be confused with
misinformation, which is not deliberate; i.e., the person or news source forwarding the information doesn't know it's not true and/or actually believes it; thus, disinformation can be
relayed as misinformation if the one relaying the message
is not aware that the originator of the message deliberately manufactured false information and offered it up for distribution. Whether the target of such an attack is to mislead the end user of the information or if the disinformation is meant to destroy the credibility of those gullible enough to relay it (usually
news agencies) and not really caring what damage it does to the ultimate recipient must be judged on a per case basis.
The classic example of disinformation was during the
Second World War, leading up to the
D-Day landings, when British intelligence convinced the German Armed Forces that a much larger invasion force was about to cross the
English Channel from
Kent,
England. In reality, the
Normandy landings were the main attempt at establishing a
beachhead, made easier by the German Command's reluctance to commit its armies.
Many so-called
9/11 researchers (notably
Mark Robinowitz) have accused some other popular 9/11 conspiracy sites of fostering outlandish conspiracy theories as disinformation meant to discredit and distract the
9/11 Truth Movement.[
1]
*
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)*
information warfare*
Black propaganda
