SpyChess Primer: Disinformation Laundering
Before ODNI's report, SpyChess broke down what it is and why it is being misdiagnosed.
Editorial Note: This piece was originally published for SpyChess subscribers on Monday, March 15, 2021, before the ODNI Intelligence Community Assessment, Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections, was published on Tuesday March 16. A key assessment in the report was the laundering of disinformation by the Russian intelligence services.
Disinformation continues to be conflated with misinformation. While they may be related, they are not the same thing.
A wide array of actors is taking advantage. They are using social media and modern technology to launder, at scale, disinformation into misinformation.
This activity results in widespread confusion. Not only does the public not understand the core issue, but the media and experts regularly find themselves just as confused. They regularly frame, analyze, and try to solve the wrong problem.
Disinformation is information an actor intentionally manipulates and disseminates to create specific responses by those exposed to it. It is meant to deceive.
The information may originally be true, it may be a half-truth, or it may be a fabrication. The (dis)information is being spread for reasons beyond any inherent value in the (dis)information itself.
Misinformation is wholly or partly wrong information spread without intent to deceive.
Regardless the level of expertise, people continue to confuse these two concepts for a variety of reasons, including some similar effects. Focusing on effects, however, can mask the origins as well as lead to misguided and ineffective counters.
If I tell you the moon doesn’t exist because I want to you to panic and react in different ways, I am giving you disinformation. I want to create, or influence, a response by you and, likely, others.
If I tell you the moon doesn’t exist because, for example, I am naïve, lack education, or I am blind, but have no further agenda, I am giving you misinformation.
Misinformation is a fabric of everyday life. Disinformation is artificially created and injected into the fabric of life.
Actors, like the Russian intelligence services, are leveraging tech and social media to launder disinformation into misinformation.
They create false or manipulated information (disinformation) because they want to affect how people think, vote, act, etc. They push it out into the world through multiple channels.
Bob in Florida reads it. He believes it. He pushes it out on Facebook or Twitter. The moment when Bob shares disinformation is the moment disinformation is laundered into misinformation. Bob doesn’t work for a malicious actor. He is a normal person just sharing “news.”
Others pick up on it. Thinking it may be true or at the very least interesting, they push it out as well. They are now pushing out misinformation. They, just like Bob, are not trying to deceive or manipulate people.
Disinformation has become misinformation. Disinformation has been washed and cleaned into something much less sinister, just like money is laundered in illicit finance.
Experts across the spectrum (media, academia, law enforcement, intelligence, et al.) see all this misinformation and start trying to come up with solutions for it. The root issue, however, remains the disinformation and, more importantly, the actors who created it.
The QAnon conspiracy, the anti-vaccine propaganda, and the Big Lie of a stolen 2020 election are three recent examples of disinformation laundered into misinformation.
In prior eras it was much more difficult for actors to spread disinformation effectively and widely because there were few, if any, methods for constant and penetrating distribution to masses of people. Disinformation was also not as effective because there were less mechanisms for laundering it, as it spread, into misinformation.
While the internet began to reshape the landscape, it was the advent of smart phones and social media that allowed for a revolution in disinformation laundering.
As we try and come up with solutions, we have to consider that social media and smart phones are not going to go away. Trying to address the issue of misinformation, when the root is disinformation, is also a half-measure at best.
Developing comprehensive strategies and effective tools begins with correctly identifying and labeling disinformation. This will lead to better analysis as well as scalable and sustainable solutions that can be integrated into the mechanisms (tech/social media) being used to launder disinformation.