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Disinformation, also known historically as propaganda, is false information intentionally disseminated or amplified by governments, media outlets, or ideology-driven individuals and organizations with the explicit aim of deceiving people to achieve political, economic, or ideological dominance. Disinformation is commonly used to demonize minority populations and provide a pretext for implementing oppressive, authoritarian policies and actions against minorities.
Centrally coordinated campaigns that mimic grassroots activism by having participants pretend to be ordinary citizens.
Examples: Gays Against Groomers, Libs of TikTok, Blexit, Charlie Kirk Data Foundation
Rebuttals of official accounts that propose alternative explanations in which individuals or groups act in secret.
Examples: Gender Ideology, Transvestigation, TERFs, “Woke”
The deliberate use of misleading headlines and thumbnails to increase online traffic for profit or popularity.
A phenomenon in which multiple groups of people, who hold entrenched values, attempt to steer public policy contentiously.
Examples: What Is A Woman?, Save Women’s Sports
Online harassment that breaches privacy by releasing information inviting physical and online harm to a target.
Examples: Keffals, Doxxing To Destroy, CharliesMurderers.com
An epistemic environment in which participants encounter beliefs and opinions that coincide with their own.
Examples: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Alex Jones, The Daily Wire
News in which false facts are presented as legitimate.
Examples: Disinformation: Hoaxes
The deliberate creation of pseudo-journalism.
Organized mass communication, on a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda, with a mission to conform belief and action by circumventing individual reasoning.
Examples: Project 2025, HHS Guidance, The Cass Review, Southern Baptist Conference, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Accounts that claim the explanatory power of science borrow its language and legitimacy but diverge substantially from its quality criteria. They also willfully misrepresent legitimate research findings and conclusions.
Examples of Pseudoscience: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, The Cass Review, American College of Pediatricians1, American College of Pediatricians2, American College of Pediatricians3, American College of Pediatricians4, Anything from the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
Unsubstantiated news stories that circulate while not corroborated or validated.
Examples: “PizzaGate“, “Sandy Hook False Flag“.
Personalities with media platforms, and/or networked groups of digital influencers that operate or inspire ‘click armies’ designed to mobilize public sentiment.
Examples: Laura Loomer, Ben Shapiro, Scott Pressler, Riley Gaines, Buck Angel, Blaire White, Charlie Kirk (deceased), Donald Trump, Jr., Matt Walsh, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Tomi Lahren, Steven Crowder, etc.
Moral tales featuring durable stories of intruders incurring boundary transgressions and their dire consequences.
Examples: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.”, “‘Woke’ ideology is destroying…”, “Donald Trump is a good businessman”.
Hate ideology that promotes a binary-only (male/female) interpretation of sex biology, and that gender identity does not “override” their understanding of what defines “womanhood”. Thus, transgender women are not, in their hate ideology, “real women”. Currently, they prefer to be called “gender-critical feminists”, but in fact, they are TERFs.
Examples: “Transgender women are predators”, “Trans girls/women should be banned from women’s sports”.
The ‘ABC’ framework for understanding different modalities of online disinformation was devised in 2019 by cybersecurity and digital safety researcher Camille François. In 2020, the Brookings Institution proposed amending the framework to include Distribution. Similarly, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace proposed adding Degree and Effect.
Manipulative Actors “engage knowingly and with clear intent in viral deception campaigns” that are “covert, designed to obfuscate the identity and intent of the actor orchestrating them.”
Deceptive Behavior “encompasses the variety of techniques viral deception actors may use to enhance and exaggerate the reach, virality and impact of their campaigns.”
Harmful Content “includes health misinformation, manipulated media such as deepfakes, online harassment, violent extremism, hate speech or terrorism.
Distribution is defined as “technical protocols that enable, constrain, and shape user behavior in a virtual space.”
Degree, which is “how widely, or insistently is the disinformation being promoted, and the audiences it reaches.”
Effect, which is “how much of a threat a given case poses”.