Disinformation tactics voters should guard against
During this election year, we can expect to be bombarded with more disinformation than ever before. We have already seen the use of artificial intelligence to clone the voice of President Joe Biden for robocalls, urging New Hampshire voters to stay home. And we can expect more dirty tricks to come.
Deepfakes can be used to create realistic images of candidates in all manner of compromising scenarios. Bots on social media can spread false claims about election issues and then amplify them with likes and shares to reach millions of users.
We might not yet be able to combat the technology that spreads disinformation, but we can educate ourselves about some disinformation tactics.
Propaganda has been used for centuries to seize power. While the tools may have changed, the strategies remain the same.
‘ The primitive sentiments of the broad masses’
Here are five tactics of disinformation used by authoritarians to gain power that voters should watch out for in the coming months:
1) Repetition. By repeating a false claim, a disinformer can trick people into believing lies are true. In his book, “Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era,” information scientist Donald A. Barclay calls this dynamic the “availability cascade.”
The more we hear something, the more likely we are to believe it. Adolf Hitler learned this trick when he served in an army information department during World War I. He wrote in “Mein Kampf” that propaganda “must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” The repetition is even more effective if it has a catchy slogan, what Hitler referred to as “the primitive sentiments of the broad masses.”
Today, we hear chants like “Stop the Steal,” “Drain the Swamp” and “Lock Her Up.” Each phrase is based on false premises that an election was stolen, that the civil service is a cabal of deep state operatives, that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a criminal. All are clearly nonsense, and yet, this year on the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, two-thirds of Trump supporters still believe the 2020 election was stolen. And, perhaps even more alarming, 52% of them have no confidence in the 2024 election. Repetition is used because it works.
2) Go big. Another tactic of propagandists is to go big. Everyone tells small lies, the thinking goes, but most people cannot imagine that someone would have the audacity to tell a huge lie, such as a claim that a presidential election was stolen.
According to Hitler, a big lie is more credible than a small lie. That’s because most people are willing to tell a small lie – no, that dress doesn’t make you look fat! – but, as Hitler wrote, few people “have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” And so, in some ways, the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed. What could be a bigger lie than a stolen election?
‘ They’ hate America. ‘ They’ want to eat your children.
3) The either/or fallacy. A third strategy that authoritarians use to manipulate the public is the either/or fallacy. They use this technique to divide and conquer factions within society. Rather than uniting people, they look for the fault lines in society and sow division. This tactic is used to fool voters into thinking that there are only two choices in politics – the red team or the blue team – and that it’s all or nothing
with no room for nuance or compromise. You are either with us or against us. Authoritarians then use fear to demonize their opponents, making them appear to be such an untenable choice that the only rational choice is their own side. “They” are letting criminals cross our borders. “They” hate America. “They” want to eat your children.
4) The part/whole fallacy. Another strategy is what debaters refer to as the “part/whole fallacy.” Disinformers look for the most undesirable or controversial policy view of the opposing party and then suggest that the whole party shares the same view.
They may argue, for example, that the “radical Democrats” want to defund the police. While some members of the party may share that view, it is false to suggest that all or even a majority of Democrats seek the same outcome. But by painting with a broad brush, disinformers can use evidence about some members of the opposing party to taint the entire group.
5) Destroy truth. A final tactic is one that is used by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin, of course, learned the tradecraft of influence operations in the KGB, the former Soviet intelligence service. The goal of this tactic is to convince people that truth doesn’t matter.
Consistency is unnecessary because the goal is to create confusion. In this world, the strategy goes, everyone lies, everyone is corrupt, and so truth is for suckers. And if everyone is corrupt, then you might as well support the candidate who shares your values.
Efforts to impeach Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have occurred despite a lack of evidence, but conviction is not the point. If certain members of the House of Representatives can neutralize impeachment as a tool of accountability, then being impeached carries no shame. Former President Donald Trump can then say that his two impeachments just show how much the Democrats are out to get him. When politicians have no commitment to truth, over time, voters become angry, then cynical and finally numb, to the point where they disengage from politics – just where the authoritarian wants them.
Building resilience from disinformation requires a multifaceted approach, but one thing we can do is educate ourselves to recognize these tactics, which we will certainly encounter as election messaging heats up. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School and a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She is the author of a forthcoming book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.“