How to Achieve Peace in the War of Disinformation
Psychological warfare has no known origin story, writes Annalee Newitz, author of Stories Are Weapons. By the time the Chinese classic The Art of War was written, likely 2,500 years ago, the practice was already widely used. In the 19th century, militaries realized that uncertainty and chaos could be weaponized: When an enemy is confused by multiple conflicting accounts of what’s happening, they are vulnerable and easily manipulated.
Greater Good Magazine
In 2020, I witnessed an online influence campaign so devious that I could not stop thinking about it—in fact, it inspired me to begin researching my book, Stories Are Weapons, from which this essay is adapted.
The reason I found it so compelling was that it was a two-stage psychological operation—or psyop, as the military would call it: First, the unknown operatives spread a wave of disinformation; next, they spread a second wave that was designed to inoculate people against any efforts to debunk the first wave of disinformation.
Here’s how it went down. One night I started to see posts on Twitter claiming that the entire DC area was in lockdown and there was a blackout in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. Posts with the hashtag #DCBlackout began piling up in my feed, and at first they appeared to be from ordinary citizens reporting from the ground.
But then I noticed some red flags that made the #DCBlackout reports seem suspicious.
Learn more about Annalee Newitz’s newest book, Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.
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