Institutional Counter-disinformation Strategies in a Networked Democracy

How should an organized response to disinformation proceed in a 21st century democratic society? At the highest level, what strategies are available? This paper attempts to answer these questions by looking at what three contemporary counter-disinformation organizations are actually doing, then analyzing their tactics. The EU East StratCom Task Force is a contemporary government counter-propaganda agency. Facebook has made numerous changes to its operations to try to combat disinformation, and is a good example of what platforms can do. The Chinese information regime is a marvel of networked information control, and provokes questions about what a democracy should and should not do. The tactics used by these organizations can be grouped into six high level strategies: refutation, exposure of inauthenticity, alternative narratives, algorithmic filter manipulation, speech laws, and censorship. I discuss the effectiveness and political legitimacy of these approaches when used within a democracy with an open Internet and a free press.