Disinformation and Deception

In this paper, I argue for two claims. The first is that the connection between disinformation and deception is more robust than it might initially seem. Whilst it is clear now that some disinformation is designed to induce doubt and deter inquiry, a suitably broad understanding of deception will help us see that much of it is indeed deceptive. The second is that if we want to understand why sometimes disinformation involves depriving us of epistemic goods and sometimes involves supplying us with epistemic goods, we will need to take account of the receiver’s practical interests to understand the instrumental value (not epistemic value) of the information they might receive. A properly formulated practical account can explain why epistemically similar modifications or alterations of content might be the sign of a disinformation tactic in one choice setting but not in another.