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Disinformation Techniques

Firehose of Falsehood

Alternative names: firehose of falsehood, gish gallop, flood of falsehoods

Definition

A propaganda technique that involves flooding the media space with a large number of contradictory claims and half-truths in quick succession. The goal is not to promote one specific lie, but to exhaust the audience and create the impression that "truth does not exist" or "no one can be trusted."

Example usage

Four contradictory versions of an event are published within 24 hours — the viewer gives up and concludes "we'll probably never know."
Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood

Related techniques

Disinformation Techniques

Falsification of facts

The intentional spread of false information or mixing truth with lies into so-called half-truths. A combination of true partial facts with f...

Also: fabulism, half-truth, half-truth

Disinformation Techniques

Falsification of facts

The intentional spread of false information or mixing truth with lies into so-called half-truths. A combination of true partial facts with fabricated details makes the whole more credible and harder to recognize. Half-truths spread faster than outright false hoaxes.

Example usage
"Drahoš's granddaughter led protests against the government." (True person, fabricated role.) Or: "The EU introduced mandatory quotas for Muslims." (Mixes truth about the EU with completely fabricated claims.)

Also: fabulism, half-truth, half-truth, fake news, disinformation

Full detail Source
Disinformation Techniques

Information Overload

The intentional inundation of the audience with a vast amount of information — true, misleading, and outright false. The goal is not to conv...

Also: information overload, inundation, information saturation

Disinformation Techniques

Information Overload

The intentional inundation of the audience with a vast amount of information — true, misleading, and outright false. The goal is not to convey a specific message, but to exhaust the recipient, lower the quality of their decision-making, and push them towards passivity or resignation. Related to the technique of 'hose of lies'.

Example usage
A politician mentions 30 different statistics, quotes, and claims in 5 minutes at a press conference — journalists have no chance to verify everything, and the audience remembers nothing but the 'feeling that they are in the know'.

Also: information overload, inundation, information saturation, gish gallop

Full detail Source
Disinformation Techniques

Relativization

Questioning objective truth: the assertion that 'truth does not exist', 'there is an alternative truth', or 'while it may not be true, it co...

Also: relativizing, alternative facts, alternative truth

Disinformation Techniques

Relativization

Questioning objective truth: the assertion that 'truth does not exist', 'there is an alternative truth', or 'while it may not be true, it could be'. The aim is to blur the line between established facts and opinions so that the audience stops believing any source.

Example usage
'Climatologists may have data, but that's just one perspective. There is also an alternative scientific opinion that says the exact opposite.' (False equivalence between consensus scientific output and marginal pseudoscience.)

Also: relativizing, alternative facts, alternative truth, blurring the truth

Full detail Source
Disinformation Techniques

Cherry Picking

Selective choice of only the data or evidence that supports a predetermined conclusion, while ignoring all others. This creates a misleading...

Also: cherry picking, selective quoting, data selection

Disinformation Techniques

Cherry Picking

Selective choice of only the data or evidence that supports a predetermined conclusion, while ignoring all others. This creates a misleading picture of reality, even if outright false information is not used.

Example usage
The article "Global Warming is a Myth" cites five cold winters but omits hundreds of warm years in the long-term trend.

Also: cherry picking, selective quoting, data selection

Full detail Source
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