Disinformation Is Not a Mistake. It’s a Strategy.
The Danger of Misinformation
Right now, coordinated efforts are underway to distort the truth about the protests unfolding in cities across the country. This isn’t new. The intentional spread of misinformation and disinformation has long been a tactic used to discredit marginalized voices and protect entrenched power. What is different today is the speed, scale, and sophistication of the manipulation.
We live in a fractured information culture where a tweet or TikTok can spread faster than the facts and where the truth is often obscured beneath a pile of carefully engineered, bot-promoted outrage. The rise of disinformation isn’t just a threat to journalism or politics—it’s a direct assault on our shared understanding of reality. It erodes our common understanding of fact and truth, making meaningful communication nearly impossible. In a country facing as many challenges as we face, without common agreement on even a basic set of facts, addressing the issues facing marginalized communities becomes nearly impossible.
And in a polarized media environment, even mainstream outlets are not immune. Increasingly, traditional news sources are shaped by political echo chambers, economic incentives, and editorial biases that subtly (or overtly) shape the public narrative. As further evidence of how real this is, cottage industries have emerged, purporting to remove bias from media consumption. Audiences don’t just consume news anymore—they align with it, defend it, and weaponize it. In this climate, critical thinking isn’t optional. It’s essential.
At Connection Point, we work with and for people, companies, and organizations on the frontlines of equity. We’ve seen this playbook before. When the voices of the marginalized are discredited, and protests are framed as chaos rather than people clamoring to have their voices heard, it undermines the central message of their cause. This strategy erases context, allowing those in power to justify the status quo. It is both dangerous and deliberate.
If you’re reading stories about what’s happening right now, ask yourself: Who’s telling the story? Who’s missing from the frame? What assumptions are being made about power, legitimacy, and danger?
Disinformation thrives in silence and passivity. Democracy, on the other hand, demands discernment. Freedom requires vigilance. Above all, both require an unwavering commitment to the truth, even when that truth is uncomfortable, inconvenient or challenges our worldview.
We cannot rebuild trust with audiences if we treat them as passive recipients of information. We must treat them as partners, capable of understanding complexity, holding multiple ideas simultaneously, and seeing through manipulation when given the right set of tools. That starts by communicating honestly, naming manipulation for what it is, and centering the voices of those most affected by injustice.
The good news is that the antidote to disinformation is already within reach. It’s in the courageous act of telling the full story, calling out misinformation unabashedly, and being unapologetic about the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.
