During election season, journalists should be ready for even more sophisticated attempts to plant false narratives and to spin disinformation via legitimate news stories, write Joan Donovan, Jon Penney, and colleagues.
“As misinformation floods political discourse in the heat of an election, it can create what Zeynep Tufekci calls “censorship by disinformation,” where members of the public, unsure of what is real or fake, are chilled from political engagement or collective action,” they write. “The result is far fewer voices and much less vibrant and healthy elections—and democracies.”