Description
The role of disinformation is growing at a considerable rate as a key weapon in the information influence operation arsenal of hostile states. Public exposure to and engagement with disinformation causes sociopolitical polarisation, electoral destabilisation and democratic vulnerability, exacerbating existing challenges of declining trust, civic engagement and political participation.
Public resilience against disinformation depends upon ontological security and systemic trust, and the ability to discern and deflect disinformation at an individual and societal level. This paper explores how attuned publics are to hostile state disinformation campaigns, how they navigate the everyday disinformation landscape in a post-trust society, and what comes next for international security and the field of international studies in terms of the potential implications of variable public trust and perceptiveness around disinformation and information influence operations.
This paper draws upon insights from an ongoing three year ESRC project exploring how foreign-state information influence operations (IIOs) have an impact on public opinion and policy decisions. Empirical data derives from five UK and Irish public focus groups conducted in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin, alongside in-depth interviews with practitioners working in the field of analysing, countering and defending against foreign-state information influence operations.
