When we hear the word disinformation, it may seem like a simple combination of the prefix dis- and the word information. However, its origins go much deeper than that. The term actually stems from the Russian word dezinformatsiya, coined by Joseph Stalin in 1923 to describe the Soviet tactic of spreading false information in foreign countries to sow confusion and deception among the public. This term was later used as the name of a KGB “black propaganda” department. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that disinformation became more widely known in the United States, particularly when it was revealed that the Reagan administration had utilized disinformation tactics in Libya. Interestingly, the very term disinformation is itself a product of deception: Stalin introduced the French-derived dezinformatsiya to replace the previous term maskirovka in order to give the impression that this deceptive practice originated in Western Europe.
