Disinformation is fake or inaccurate information that is intentionally spread to mislead and deceive. The term disinformation refers to false information that is created to harm a person, social group, organization, or country.
The English word disinformation first appeared in dictionaries in the late 1980s. The act of spreading disinformation is primarily carried out by government intelligence agencies, but also by non-governmental organizations. Recently, disinformation has been considered a synonym for fake news on social media and articles masked as legitimate news and created to deceive readers.
Historically, the word disinformation was coined by Joseph Stalin in 1923. The term originally used was desinformatsiya to describe KGB black propaganda. Disinformation was defined in the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia as false information with the intention to deceive public opinion. During the period of the Cold War, the disinformation tactic was used by multiple intelligence agencies.
Nowadays, most activity in terms of active disinformation campaigns takes place on Facebook and Twitter. Techniques include the use of bots to amplify hate speech or paid trolls to harass and threaten.
The high degree of disinformation online increased in 2016 during the U.S. elections. The term fake news, which is considered synonymous with disinformation, became mainstream during the elections when hundreds of websites published falsified or heavily biased stories in the pursuit of advertising revenue.
