Manipulation of information to influence public opinion. The term comes from Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith), a missionary organization established by the pope in 1622. Propagandists emphasize the elements of information that support their position and deemphasize or exclude those that do not. Misleading statements and even lies may be used to create the desired effect in the public audience. Lobbying, advertising, and missionary activity are all forms of propaganda, but the term is most commonly used in the political arena. Prior to the 20th century, pictures and the written media were the principal instruments of propaganda; radio, television, motion pictures, and the Internet later joined their ranks. Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes use propaganda to win and keep the support of the populace. In wartime, propaganda directed by a country at its own civilian population and military forces can boost morale; propaganda aimed at the enemy is an element of psychological warfare.

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Disinformation is the deliberate dissemination of false information. It may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or propagation of malicious rumors and fabricated intelligence.
In the context of espionage or military intelligence, it is the deliberate spreading of false information to mislead an enemy as to one's position or course of action.
In the context of politics, it is the deliberate attempt to deflect voter support of an opponent, disseminating false statements of innuendo based on the candidates vulnerabilities as revealed by opposition research. In both cases, it also includes the distortion of true information in such a way as to render it useless.

Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, which is merely false information spread by mistake.

Disinformation techniques may also be found in commerce and government, used by one group to try to undermine the position of a competitor. It in fact is the act of deception and blatant false statements to convince someone of an untruth. Cooking-the-books might be considered a disinformation strategy that led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Unlike traditional propaganda and Big Lie techniques 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.

Another 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 and discrediting the opposition by association with a lot of easily-disproved false claims.

A common disinformation tactic is to mix some truth and observation with false conclusions and lies, or to reveal part of the truth while presenting it as the whole (a limited hangout).

The Cold War made disinformation a recognized military and political tactic. Military disinformation techniques were described by Vladimir Volkoff.

Examples of disinformation

D-Day

A classic example of disinformation was during the World War II, preceding the D-Day landings, in what would be known as Operation Fortitude. 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.

Disinformation by the CIA

In 1957 The CIA knew about the Mayak accident but the information was not released publicly because of the "reluctance of the CIA to highlight a nuclear accident in the USSR, that could cause concern among people living near nuclear facilities in the USA".

In 1986, national security adviser John Poindexter wrote for President Ronald Reagan a "disinformation program" aimed at destabilizing Libya's Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi by planting reports in the foreign press about an impending conflict between the two countries. However, the false information eventually reached The Wall Street Journal—a phenomenon known in the trade as blowback .

Alleged disinformation

Senior SVR officer Sergei Tretyakov made the claim to writer Pete Earley that the KGB "created the myth of nuclear winter" as disinformation (see Sergei Tretyakov for details), although Earley said that the accuracy of this claim "is impossible to discern", and subsequent studies using more advanced climate models have continued to support the hypothesis (see nuclear winter).

A few additional examples of alleged Soviet disinformation against the United States included the following :

• Promotion of false John F. Kennedy assassination theories through writer Mark Lane who had meetings with several Soviet agents including Genrikh Borovik. Lane denies these allegations.
• Discreditation of the CIA, using historian Philip Agee (codenamed PONT).
• Attempts to discredit Martin Luther King, Jr. by placing publications portraying him as an "Uncle Tom" who was secretly receiving government subsidies. At the time King's campaign for civil rights was praised by the Soviet Union, and he was the subject of disinformation efforts by the FBI's Cointelpro Commission. [From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Struggle for Economic Justice. By Thomas F. Jackson],
• Stirring up racial tensions in the United States by mailing bogus letters from the Ku Klux Klan, placing an explosive package in "the Negro section of New York" (operation PANDORA), and spreading conspiracy theories that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination had been planned by the US government.
• Fabrication of the story that AIDS virus was manufactured by US scientists at Fort Detrick; the story was spread by Russian-born biologist Jakob Segal

Former Mossad case worker Victor Ostrovsky claims that the Israeli secret service successfully used disinformation techniques to cause the US to blame Libya for the 1986 bombing of La Belle Discothèque in West Berlin.

References

See also

• Propaganda
• False flag operation
• Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
• Information warfare
• Black propaganda
• Active measures
• AIDS conspiracy theories
• Internet brigades

External links

• Crash Course in KGB/SVR/FSB Disinformation and Active Measures - by The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, USA
• Disinformation - a learning resource from the British Library including an interactive movie and activities