What are disinformation campaigns?

A disinformation campaign is when someone tries to trick people into believing something that isn’t true, and they do it on purpose.

Imagine you're playing a game of tag at the park, but instead of your friend shouting “You’re it!” they shout “The sky is pink!” just to confuse everyone. That’s like a disinformation campaign, someone is trying to make you believe something silly or misleading so you don’t know what’s really going on.

How It Works

In a real disinformation campaign, people might spread fake news through messages, videos, or pictures that look real. They could be trying to make you think something bad is happening, or maybe they just want you to argue with your friends about the color of the sky!

Sometimes it’s like someone is pretending to be your friend in the game, but they're actually working together with another group to throw you off.

It’s not magic, it's just clever trickery that people do on the internet or through other ways.

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Examples

  1. A group of people spread fake news about a politician to make them look bad.
  2. Fake messages appear on social media saying a virus is much worse than it really is.
  3. A company pays for hundreds of fake accounts to post positive reviews about their product.

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