Understanding Online Propaganda
Written by Alex Fisher
Thumbnail & Banner Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash.com
You can find memes, advertisements, and influencers’ posts on nearly every corner of the internet. They’re so prevalent that half the time you probably just scroll past them without a second thought, but have you ever paused to consider the intention behind some of these posts?
The term ‘propaganda’ typically brings to mind old wartime posters that tried to villainize certain political views or encourage specific behaviours within a nation’s population, such as joining the military. Propaganda is not a relic of the twentieth century, however. It is something that you might face nearly every day and not even realize it.
So what is propaganda, anyway?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines propaganda as “information, ideas, opinions, or images, often only giving one part of an argument, that are broadcast, published, or in some other way spread with the intention of influencing people’s opinions.” The Encyclopedia Britannica has a similar definition, specifying that propaganda can be spread through mass media such as television and the internet.
Propaganda is not an inherently harmful thing, as many have been led to believe. The Swedish Psychological Defence Agency states that the concept itself is completely neutral, but that it is up to the actor—typically, someone working for a government or group—whether or not a piece of propaganda is designed to have a positive or negative effect on the target demographic.
It’s worth noting that propaganda is not necessarily untrue, either. Propaganda can often contain true information, but the information is presented in a way that is misleading or designed to influence people’s opinions or actions in a certain way. It can, of course, contain outright lies or opinions presented as facts, but it’s important to note the difference between propaganda and the related concepts of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation—collectively known as MDM.
Misinformation refers to false information that is believed to be factual and spread inadvertently, without any intention of causing harm. For example, if someone sent you an article from a popular satire site such as The Onion or The Beaverton that they had believed to be true, that would be classified as misinformation.
Disinformation is similar to misinformation, but differs primarily in the intention behind it. Disinformation refers to untrue information that is spread intentionally with the goal of causing harm or influencing the opinions of others. It can be hard to tell misinformation and disinformation apart, which is why you might hear people using the terms interchangeably, but they do refer to different things. Going back to the previous example, if that person had instead known the article was false and was hoping to deceive you with it, that would be disinformation.
Malinformation, unlike misinformation and disinformation, is based on true facts. These facts, however, are presented without context or are completely exaggerated. The goal of malinformation is to mislead people with regard to what is true and what is not, often with the intent to harm a specific group or person. If someone sent you an article based on factual information but intentionally exaggerated the information presented in the article in order to influence your view on the topic, that would be malinformation.
While the term ‘propaganda’ is not often used to describe misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation that is spread over the internet, all three fall under the broader banner of propaganda. As such, our usage of ‘propaganda’ throughout the rest of this article will encompass these ideas.
Why can propaganda be dangerous?
While the usage of propaganda is not dangerous by default, it certainly can be—especially when MDM is used. The Government of Canada website has a page that outlines the potential harm that disinformation can cause to you and others. Some of the chief concerns presented are about your health, your money, and national security. This last point has been particularly important in recent years, especially with the use of ‘bots’—automated pieces of software that repeat a task over and over until they are eventually shut down. These bots can easily spread MDM on social media through accounts and posts made to look real, flooding social media with posts that promote or suppress certain views or ideas. These bots are so prevalent that during times of high activity, particularly around key political events like the United States Presidential election, bot activity can significantly outpace posts by real users. Bot farms can be made up of thousands of devices, making the process of spreading propaganda even easier.
The spread of all this propaganda, through both people and bots, can have a significant impact. The Government of Canada estimates that in a nine-month period, nearly three thousand people in Canada died as a result of MDM surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. Immunization rates have also fallen in New Zealand, the United States, and even in Canada. This has led to outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles both abroad and in Canada, notably in northern Nova Scotia. Foreign parties interested in interfering with elections often do so by spreading propaganda online, according to Elections Canada. All of these examples point to the fact that the spread of online propaganda can and does have real-life consequences.
Where might you see online propaganda?
Online propaganda, known colloquially as ‘fake news,’ can be seen nearly everywhere on the internet. Memes, seen by most as silly jokes or harmless posts, can be used to spread political ideologies, influence public opinion, and disseminate extremist views—especially with the help of generative AI. Social media posts and fake accounts have been used to crash stock prices, and there are specific types of propaganda used in marketing and advertisements to try and sell products. Facebook is often cited as one of the websites where it is easiest to stumble upon propaganda, and according to Statista, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook are the three least trusted social media sites when it comes to propaganda and fake news.
Even when one source can generally be considered trustworthy, beware of fake news sites designed to mimic real ones, as these sites are specifically designed to fool you into believing and sharing their fake stories. Online influencers paid by political organizations can also spread propaganda through their platform, offering these organizations “a new way to launder their manipulation efforts and avoid detection,” according to Samuel C. Woolley, who is now an associate professor and Chair of Disinformation Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have also found that online propaganda can spread up to ten times faster than factual information, setting a concerning precedent for the spread of information in the digital era.
How do you spot propaganda?
Thankfully, there are ways that you can pick out online propaganda. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security has a webpage dedicated to identifying MDM specifically, and includes questions you can ask yourself as well as some tips to verify that the information you’re seeing online is true. The Government of Canada has a similar webpage with some “tips and tools” to help keep you safe against online propaganda. Simon Fraser University, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, has an eight-step process for identifying fake news: consider the source, read beyond the headline, check the author’s credibility, find supporting sources, check the publication date, check for satire, check your own biases, and ask an expert if you’re in doubt. Additionally, the American Psychological Association has an article detailing the ways you can help to counter the spread of online propaganda and disinformation. The tips on these pages can assist you with verifying information you see online and, if you do come across malicious propaganda, they also provide you with some steps to combat its spread.
Propaganda can be seen almost everywhere online, and the threat it can pose in the right circumstances is worrying. Anyone can spread misinformation if they’re not careful enough, and bot farms make it easier than ever for bad actors and foreign agents to spread disinformation. This makes it all the more important to know how to spot online propaganda and to double-check not just everything you read online, but also the articles and posts your friends and family send you.
Have you encountered propaganda while browsing the internet, and did it influence a choice that you made? Let us know your thoughts in the comments sections on our social media pages.