Dominic Raab, the failed former Brexit secretary, was recently rebuked by the European Commission for spreading “pure disinformation” in a campaign video. Spreading disinformation about the EU is a venerable Conservative tradition: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson did so eagerly as a Telegraph journalist in the 1990s. But is “disinformation” just the same as lies, or fake news?
Aficionados and spies, it turns out, use “misinformation” to mean any kind of falsehood, accidental or deliberate, while “disinformation” signals that the untruth has been knowingly broadcast to deceive. The word is modelled directlyon the Russian dezinformacija, a term coined by Stalin and used as the name of a KGB propaganda office. You can also, helpfully, use the verb form “disinform” as an antonym for “inform”: so, this newspaper reported in 1978 that “foreign intelligence agents” were suspected of “subverting, deceiving and disinforming” public opinion in France.
Propaganda for geopolitical advantage, of course, did not end with the cold war. Notoriously, Russian-originated disinformation campaigns on social media have preceded recent events such as the election of Donald Trump and the vote in favour of Brexit itself. Do you feel disinformed?
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