Real World Examples Suggest a Path to Automated Mitigation of Disinformation

The concept of disinformation as a tactic to gain advantage over an opponent is ancient with examples of its use referenced in Sun Tzu's the Art of War written in the sixth century BC. The wide spread use of social media has amplified the power of disinformation to affect our lives and the nation. In addition, social media has increased the scope of the task to mitigate the effects of disinformation beyond what is possible by manual processes. This paper summarizes interviews with and presentation by security officials at several diverse organizations including a financial institution, a large retail corporation, and state and federal law enforcement. The findings included proven mitigation techniques. These findings, combined with known techniques to measure social norms, suggest a possible research path to at least partially automate the identification of, and the mitigation against disinformation on social media.