Fact-Checkers Cannot Save Us
Anti-vaccination activists rally outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix in 2021. Vaccine opponents have flourished online in the past decade. Photo by Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
The New York Times
The United States launched a broad effort, including sanctions and indictments, to fight Russian influence and disinformation campaigns related to the 2024 election.
Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, policymakers, think tanks, the media and intergovernmental organizations have responded to a surge in disinformation around the world.
Disinformation is often seen as a symptom of foreign interference; states or state-sponsored actors trying to influence the tides of geopolitics. Russia, for example, was blamed during the 2017 French presidential election for attempting to undermine Emmanuel Macron’s campaign, and it seems likely that Russian-linked accounts spread disinformation to sway public opinion in favor of leaving the European Union before the 2016 Brexit referendum.
But I have found that while disinformation is a common tool for countries like Russia and China, the growth in its power stems from a fundamental cultural and social shift — one that’s changed our relationship with information and the truth.
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