Misinformation becomes disinformation only when intent to deceive is added

Evidence

At this point, it is useful to conceptually distinguish ‘misinformation’ from ‘disinformation’ and ‘propaganda’. I define misinformation as information that is simply false or incorrect, for whatever reason. People make honest mistakes. Journalists make innocent errors. Disinformation, however, is misinformation coupled with some psychological intention to deceive or harm others. When disinformation is deployed in the service of a political agenda, state-sanctioned or otherwise, we call it propaganda. What matters here is the explicit involvement of malicious intent, often with the goal of manipulating people – for example, to vote a certain way. In other words, disinformation and propaganda are the more dangerous subsets of what everyone generally refers to as ‘fake news’. Unfortunately, intent is difficult to prove, at least in a legal sense, so throughout this book I will mostly use the broader term ‘misinformation’ so as to remain agnostic about intent unless I specifically refer to well-documented disinformation and propaganda campaigns. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 53

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the operative definitions distinguishing misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda by malicious intent.
• XREF: connects to: A Pakistani anti-kidnap PSA reframed as ‘evidence’ sparked fatal vigilante attacks. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 355; Misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda differ mainly by intent to deceive — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 53