Disinformation Kills. Here’s What A National Strategy to Fight Back Might Look Like

(This first appeared in my free newsletter, https://MarcAmbinder.substack.com/ about digital security and countering disinformation.)

A few days ago, thousands of Americans received text messages from “a very reliable intel” source warning of a nationwide quarantine, of a mandatory two-week, military-enforced lockdown of the entire nation. The “intel” was false, but the details, and the atmosphere, convinced a lot of people that there was an underlying truth to the message, even though it was anonymous, came from an anonymous number, and was shared without warning. Indeed, we have seen several states and localities enforce quarantines and, tracking with the message, many of us have been asked to stay in our homes for two weeks. What’s dangerous about a fake message like that is not so much that it gives people false information. What’s dangerous is that spoof messages feel true to many people because it appropriately matches their level of fear and confusion. Effective disinformation performs two functions well. It paralyzes civic action. And it traps people into sort of a cognitive box; they start relying on sources who seem to most closely mimic their own fears, rather than sources who have access to the best obtainable truth. Disinformation can be deadly. In Iran, more than two dozen people died because they were told that downing alcohol could kill the virus. The percentage of Republicans who see a serious threat from the pandemic is less than 50 percent; Fox News’s…