Disinformation in the City Brief #3: Responses

This brief is part of a series of three published as part of the Disinformation in the City project, led by the Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne in partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). 

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Disinformation impacts cities. In extraordinary times of rapid information-sharing, distrust, and disruption, cities are on the front line. Local authorities are the level of government most accessible to the people, and are tasked with leading communities through ever more complex societal and global challenges.

The rise of disinformation is a complicated challenge for cities globally. As the disinformation landscape evolves, cities must evolve along with it. This will require innovation, information-sharing, and deployment of response solutions at every stage of the disinformation lifecycle. Using technology, collaboration, and community engagement, cities can, and increasingly do, curtail the harmful impacts of disinformation.

Disinformation is information and media content meant to deliberately mislead or evoke an emotional response in a target audience. Disinformation is sometimes also called “fake news” or propaganda.2 The intent of content creators is relevant, and it distinguishes disinformation from misinformation. Misinformation is simply false or misleading information, which might be created or shared due to unconscious bias or accident.3 The creation and propagation of disinformation, in contrast, is always purposeful and calculated to achieve a particular goal or outcome.

Cities are increasingly impacted by disinformation. In the following sections, various strategies related to cities’ responses to this growing issue are explored. “Disinformation response” refers to a suite of activities before, during, and after disinformation has been disseminated. These activities may be seen as different response phases that include preemption and early detection; spread prevention and pre-bunking; and debunking and recovery.