Glossary: Disinformation
Launch library · evergreen read
Disinformation is false information created or spread with deliberate intent to deceive its audience. Unlike misinformation, the person or group behind it typically knows the claim is false and shares it anyway to achieve some particular goal, whether financial, reputational, political or otherwise entirely, depending on who stands to benefit from the deception.
Because intent is hard to observe directly from the outside, disinformation is often identified through pattern rather than certainty: coordinated timing across many accounts, a claim engineered to be difficult to trace back to its true origin, or content designed specifically to resist easy fact checking by others.
The practical response to suspected disinformation usually differs meaningfully from misinformation. Rather than a single friendly correction, it calls for documenting the pattern carefully, reporting it through appropriate channels, and being cautious about amplifying it further even while pointing out clearly, and without exaggeration, that the underlying claim itself is false.