Mark Freeman
The Disinformation Project’s latest paper is itself shown to be disinformation by a classic book on propaganda that the paper is partially based on.
The three-person Disinformation Project (TDP) is an ‘independent’ New Zealand research group whose funding is not publicly disclosed but whose findings are suspiciously in lock-step with the Labour Government’s views. The researchers study sources such as social media to analyse “the scope, scale and spread of mis- and disinformation in Aotearoa New Zealand”.
In its recently-released paper on the occupation of Parliament grounds in February and March, TDP claims that online Covid-19 mis- and disinformation pushed protest followers towards “more violently exclusive, supremacist, xenophobic, racist, far-right and extremist ideologies”.
TDP defines misinformation as false information created without the intent to hurt others, while disinformation is false information created with intent to do so. However, another important aspect of disinformation – not mentioned by TDP – is that it’s a subset of propaganda. As shown in the multiple examples in two Wikipedia articles on the topics, disinformation and propaganda are almost exclusively pushed by governments and other powerful organisations, not by protest groups, who often struggle to get their messages heard in the mainstream.
In its paper, TDP uses academic verbiage to reinforce the Ardern Government’s fear-based narrative of anti-vax protesters posing an increasing threat to public safety. But, in a sweet irony, disinformation tactics used by TDP and the government are identified by one of the sources cited by TDP itself – French philosopher Jacques Ellul’s 1973 book Propaganda: the formation of men’s attitudes – from which TDP draws theoretical perspectives (p. 4). Ellul frequently references the propaganda tactics of the Nazi and Soviet communist regimes as well as other governments.
One key disinformation technique Ellul highlights is the strategic use of facts, intentions and interpretations. We may think that propagandists are complete liars, but that’s not true. Their disinformation needs to be based in reality, Ellul says. Propagandists avoid lying about facts that can be checked; otherwise, propaganda would destroy itself:
The truth that pays off is in the realm of facts. The necessary falsehoods, which also pay off, are in the realm of intentions and interpretations. This is a fundamental rule for propaganda analysis. (p. 53)
Let’s apply this principle to an excerpt in the media release for TDP’s paper:
The ostensibly original and more moderate goals of the Convoy were pushed aside and replaced with extremist narrative frames, including calling for the weaponised storming of Parliament, the execution of public servants, academics, journalists, politicians, and healthcare workers.
Click to access The-murmuration-of-information-disorders-May-2022-Report-SHORT-VERSION.pdf
The fact is that there were (a small minority of) protesters calling for the storming of Parliament and executions. However, the deceptiveness of the statement lies in the interpretation of the relationship between the two narrative frames. TDP don’t provide any evidence to support their argument that the “extremist” online narrative replaced the moderate narrative. I’m sure most of the protesters would rebut that interpretation.
Another technique of the propagandist, according to Ellul, is to falsely ascribe to his or her enemy the speaker’s own intentions (pages 58-59):
The propagandist will not accuse the enemy of just any misdeed; he will accuse him of the very intention that he himself has and of trying to commit the very crime that he himself is about to commit. The accusation aimed at the other’s intention clearly reveals the intention of the accuser.
This is a common oratory technique of politicians, which is used in an indirect manner by TDP:
Disinformation highlights differences and divisions that can be used to target and scapegoat, normalise prejudices, harden us-versus-them mentalities, and justify violence. This is now the case in Aotearoa New Zealand; disinformation and its focus on difference are at risk of cementing themselves within how we interact with one another.
https://thedisinfoproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/The-murmuration-of-information-disorders-May-2022-Report-SHORT-VERSION.pdf
This statement implies that the protesters targeted and scapegoated. But, as readers of The BFD will know, the real disinformation, creation of division, scapegoating and justification of (police) violence came from Ardern’s Government and the mainstream media.
It’s true that some protest supporters unintentionally shared incorrect information online, but that was misinformation, not disinformation. We do need to be on the lookout for disinformation, but the most likely place to find it will be in the speeches and writing of politicians and their state-funded lackeys. They’re working hard to interpret any inconvenient facts which counter the official narrative in such a way as to prevent the minds of the public from being infected with the truth.