The Game Space of “Information Disorder”

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Indirect countermeasures against hostile propaganda appear to be more effective than overt struggle and are becoming more common. U.S. digital diplomacy increasingly employs online games that teach players about information manipulation, aiming to “inoculate” them against attempts to change their convictions. In this paper, through experiments and surveys, the authors find that, along with “useful” inoculation, these games also advance the “soft disempowerment” of Russia and its media, more generally suppressing the soft power of non-Western-aligned states.