Disinformation

The factsheet will help you know more about: 

Click a heading to jump straight to it or scroll down 
  • What is disinformation?
  • Why not call it ‘fake news’?
  • How does disinformation work?
  • Example 
  • When are you likely to see/read/hear disinformation?
  • Who is creating disinformation and why?
  • What is the impact?
  • What can I do?

What is disinformation?

  • Disinformation is when someone deliberately creates and spreads false information
  • The intent is to deceive people and manipulate them into believing what they are saying is true

Why not call it ‘fake news’?

  • The phrase ‘fake news’ is overused globally particularly by politicians and others who want to shut down journalists asking difficult questions
  • The phrase ‘fake news’ doesn’t sufficiently describe the variety of falsehoods journalists are likely to come across as you will discover in this Toolkit

How does disinformation work?

Spotting disinformation can be difficult. Experts at the University of Cambridge in the UK have come up with an acronym: DEPICT, to help you identify six common tactics that disinformers use. It also helps us understand more about why people believe false information.
Click on the images to find out what each letter represents.

Example

Swipe the screen which shows two images of the 2026 presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu known as Bobi Wine and his wife Barbie. They look identical apart from the colour of their clothing. 
Challenge: Which one do you think is real?
Image A - the one on the left is real. It was posted across multiple platforms including Bobi Wine’s official Facebook page. 
The photo of the couple wearing yellow clothing has been digitally altered. It was posted on X. Yellow is the main colour of the ruling National Resistance Movement Party (NRM) but Bobi Wine leads the National Unity Platform (NUP) whose colours are red, white and navy blue. The altered image falsely implies he and his wife have joined the NRM.
People share examples like this simply because it fits in with their biases - they believe it because they agree with it.  
Click to watch a short video from Fact Lens on how this disinformation was exposed and the importance of ‘checking your biases’. 
Key takeaways from this example:
  • Use open-source free tools such as reverse image search to help you verify claims 
  • Analyse the online footprint - the date when something was posted
  • Check for any public statements by the people being named
  • Check any official party announcements
  • Stay informed about what is going on in your country
You can learn more about the fact checking processes in the Core skills and tools section of the Toolkit. 
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When are you likely to see/read/hear disinformation?

  • Any event that is making headlines or an issue that people are talking about is likely to be targeted with disinformation e.g., a natural disaster, a national election, a large protest, a health scare, a conflict, a climate change conference
  • In Uganda mis- and disinformation is largely being spread across social media platforms and WhatsApp as well as radio. The UN Global Pulse campaign during the Covid pandemic used automatic speech recognition technology to detect rumours and misinformation on some local radio stations (link in Resources)
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Who is creating disinformation and why?

We don’t always know who is responsible, but the primary offenders appear to be:

What is the impact?

The creation and dissemination of disinformation is helping to undermine democratic elections, promote societal polarisation and increase conflict. 
Ultimately, it is affecting public trust in the people whose job it is to provide them with information – journalists. It’s why understanding how disinformation works is so important to knowing how to tackle it effectively and build trust with audiences. 

What can I do?

Be curious and ask questions. Creating a healthy information ecosystem depends on all of us playing a part. That includes journalism students.

Share the common disinformation tactics with family, friends and wider society giving them the tools they need to be able to critically evaluate information that helps rather than harms them. 

When you read/hear/see something BEFORE you share it take these three steps:

Pause 

and be cautious. Do not share any claims straight away

Question 

 if it might be a lie

Fact check

any claim before you share it
Test some of the disinformation tactics yourself with the interactive Bad News game developed by researchers at Cambridge University in the UK. There’s a link in Resources.

Download a summary of six common tactics used by those creating and spreading disinformation.