Introduction:
I do remember in Academy subject where we studied information as a part of war operations, prior, during, and after combat operations, and I clearly remember we used to study portions from Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former high-ranking Romanian intelligence officer who defected to the West in 1978 and exposed Soviet disinformation tactics.
His book, Disinformation, reveals the extent of Cold War-era propaganda and the manipulation of global perceptions, offering invaluable insights into modern disinformation campaigns.
Today, the true battle about how to subside and fight misinformation or disinformation has just begun.
The other day, I accidentally caught a conversation amongst children, specifically their discussion of the issue "Is the Earth Flat?"
Even though I appreciate their arguments, their discussion led me to consider the possibility of "conspiracy theories."
That's misinformation. We have been vulnerable since childhood. The internet and social networks contribute significantly to their rapid dissemination.
It's not like disinformation originated in "our" time.
In today's "post-truth era," disinformation seems to be the dominant strategy.
But has everything really changed over the past few decades?
Today's conversations sometimes present disinformation and arguments about "fake news" as novel occurrences.
Disinformation efforts nowadays, however, combine tried-and-true techniques with fresh opportunities provided by the Internet.
Black-and-white propaganda
People sometimes refer to disinformation as "black propaganda" because it conceals the source of a message.
The term "white propaganda" typically refers to public relations and advertising.
Disinformation is purposefully deceptive and so furthers an agenda, in contrast to misinformation, which frequently stems from inadvertent mistakes or ignorance.
Sometimes, active foreign policy uses disinformation to influence public opinion abroad for better or worse.
The goal of disinformation is to undermine valid ideas, truths, and positive connotations in society.
Disinformation can affect more than just politicians. It also affects institutions, organisations, and even nations.
The goal is frequently to cast doubt on the authority of important organisations or individuals, especially in majority-based democracies.
Divide and Rule
The goal of disinformation is to influence public opinion.
Upsetting these will foster political disenchantment and apathy.
Disinformation is an active political tool that seeks to "divide and rule" by breaking social cohesion and causing society to break apart into small, isolated factions.
Disinformation during the Cold War
Today's conversations often present disinformation and arguments about "fake news" and the post-factual era as novel occurrences.
Nonetheless, the operations of the Soviet secret service KGB during the Cold War provide the intellectual foundation for many of the disinformation phenomena that may be investigated today.
The examination of the target audience's concerns, fears, social conflict lines, and dominant discourses is the first step in the KGB's so-called disinformation cycle.
Disinformation consciously seeks to widen societal gaps that already exist.
The second step involved identifying targets vulnerable to these conflict lines and narratives that can fuel them.
Next, people create misinformation content, such as rumours or fake papers, to support a specific viewpoint.
This content is then secretly released, whether by "unwitting agents" or by purchasing or bribing media outlets in other nations.
These individuals mindlessly disseminate lies that have been passed down to them, much like leaks.
When the media or unquestioning journalists serve as advocates for misleading information and it becomes entrenched in national discourses, the disinformation cycle comes to an end.
When media outlets regarded as reliable disseminate incorrect information, the message gains credibility and reaches a wide target audience.
Confirmation Bias
As an active measure, disinformation deftly takes advantage of social and psychological flaws, such as our tendency to accept something as true if we hear it from others frequently.
Disinformation is especially likely to reach those with strong ideological inclinations or those who think they are immune to it.
They are less inclined to challenge you if you present them with conspiracy theories that support their worldview ("confirmation bias").
Rotten Herring
One method is "rotten herring.".
Anonymous rumours about a person circulate on the Internet and in tabloid media.
These rumours usually involve abuse, corruption scandals, or affairs
These stories aim to create a negative impression in the target's mind. Sensation-driven tabloid media in particular, without key source checking mechanisms such as double verification of material, are susceptible to this.
Scandals drive traffic or clicks.
Whether or not information is true is irrelevant. Therefore, we oversimplify by equating misinformation with erroneous information.
The highest calibre of disinformation frequently starts with real premises that are compounded or taken out of context to produce ominous conclusions.
Conspiracy theories are a methodically disseminated type of well-researched deception.
We propose many divergent, sometimes contradictory theories to explain a difficult subject. Ultimately, this leaves the intended audience unsure of what is genuinely true and what is entirely fictitious.
So, it's about diverting attention from the truth.
This "firehose of falsehood" approach symbolically muddies the discursive waters, making it impossible for anyone to see through it.
The KGB operated under the presumption that misinformation could be easily uncovered or would likely not be effective in the short run.
Disinformation typically doesn't persuade strongly disagreeing people; instead, it reinforces prejudices in those who hold its core beliefs.
Individuals who already harbor a deep cynicism towards the media, political, or scientific systems, perceive them as bought or viewed as corrupt.
Additionally, persons with limited media literacy and those who only consume a small number of homogenous media outlets and do not receive a diversified image of the news landscape are more susceptible to the effects of disinformation.
Disinformation: In the era of information
Contemporary disinformation efforts leverage pre-existing techniques and augment them with novel opportunities presented by the Internet.
This refers to the ease with which blogs and social networks enable global information sharing, as well as the disinformation-resistant economic models of Internet platforms.
Displaying material that people like is the foundation of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Google's data-driven business strategies.
The objective is to maintain people's focus on the platforms in order to present them with additional product advertising, which is how these businesses generate revenue.
Research demonstrates that sensationalist content, conspiracy theories, and scandals entice users to remain on these platforms for extended periods, thereby boosting revenue from "clickbait" advertisements.
"Micro-targeting," or the practice of advertisers showing people tailored ads based on their interests and psychological profile, is another issue.
Therefore, it is possible to automate and customize misinformation.
Disinformation can spread millions of times through blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to reach a global audience.
Automated bots or paid commenters—troll armies—can attempt to influence online conversations.
Non-state actors like right-wing organizations are increasingly using disinformation.
Because of technical issues, it is frequently difficult to establish authorship of information.
It is useless to try and stop the rain
These developments are supported by the media's shifting behaviour.
The old-fashioned media no longer serves as a gatekeeper to sort pertinent information from irrelevant information.
Because of the Internet's free culture, users are no longer accustomed to paying for premium content.
The economy's pressure results in quality reductions.
There is a trend towards even faster news cycles, which also indicates a decline in quality control. Even after repairs, very few users identify problems.
This tendency has long-term implications, including the likelihood that people will accept false information from a reputable source rather than an untrustworthy one.
Long-term dissatisfaction with the media landscape leads readers to actively seek alternative media, which in turn leads them to divisive blogs or foreign propaganda sources.
Readers of newspapers that report on politics more fairly, for example, tend to have a more positive opinion of politics than do those who mostly get their news from algorithmically aggregated social media news feeds.
Disinformation can only address preexisting human deficiencies and limitations; thus, it's critical to address these core issues over time.
We should approach short-term "quick fixes" that use artificial intelligence—AI systems or upload filters to counteract misinformation—with caution.
Artificial intelligence is terrible at picking up on grey areas such as humour, misquoted statements, and suggestive misinformation.
"It is useless to try and stop the rain." Instead, we need to make sure that it doesn't further destroy our home's foundation.
Only by adapting the political, media, and educational structures to the demands of the information era can we achieve this in the long run.