How to recognize disinformation and protect yourself from manipulation? Discover the techniques and mechanisms behind the spread of false content with the help of experts from the NASK Institute's Disinformation Analysis Center.
Disinformation is false or misleading content. It can take many forms: posts, articles, comments, videos, or audio recordings.
Disinformation is spread with the intention of deliberately harming the public or generating profit. The ultimate goals of disinformation are to incite fear, distrust institutions, and polarize society.
Each of us can contribute to the spread of disinformation. Simply sharing false content on social media is enough.
Disinformation undermines trust in public institutions, science, and the media. It contributes to the destabilization of the state and fuels social divisions.
False content created and disseminated without the intention to cause harm. It may arise as a result of error or lack of diligence.
False, inaccurate, or misleading content that is designed, presented, and promoted with the intent to deliberately cause public harm or achieve profit.
True content used in a harmful or malicious way to cause harm. It may involve, for example, the disclosure of private information.
The internet gives us easy access to information. However, amidst wise advice and proven recipes, there are also false or misleading content. Some of this may constitute disinformation. Learn how to recognize and verify it. Say: I VERIFY!
Think about authors' or sources' intention. Do they want to inform you, sell a product, or influence your views?
Assess the overall context—look for information in other independent and reliable news sources.
Use common sense and evaluate whether the events or figures presented are plausible.
Check who the authors are. Do they exist? Are they reliable experts in their field? Are they known for credible publications?
Consider how the content will influence the public discourse. Will it provoke anger, fear, or conflict among audiences?
Verify whether the source does not omit important facts, take quotations out of context, or manipulate data.
Watch out for clickbaits, exclamation marks, capital letters, and emotional headlines designed to force an immediate click. Be also aware of manipulation techniques e.g., altered images, photomontages, deepfakes.
A sensational or emotional headline designed to attract attention.
Phrases that evoke fear, indignation, anger or rage.
Using someone's image and authority to spread harmful content.
Selecting information that fits the thesis while ignoring the context.
Unjustified assumption of a cause-and-effect relationship between events.
Citing personal experience to disprove statistics or research results.
Artificial intelligence-generated fake audio or video material.
Manipulating audiovisual material using simple, widely available tools.
Learn more about disinformation actors.
Foreign state services
Foreign state services may deliberately spread disinformation to achieve their goals by influencing the politics, economy, security, or culture of other countries.
Trolls and bots
Trolls are users who post provocative content, while bots are automated accounts that create artificial crowd activity. They may operate in an organized way, within the so-called farms.
Public figures, politicians, opinion leaders, and ordinary users
They may use unreliable data or manipulated information. If they do this without intending to cause harm, we refer to it as misinformation.
News
News18 August 2026
NASK and the OECD are working together to counter disinformation and strengthen public institutions’ resilience to information threats. As part of this cooperation, experts will meet at NASK headquarters at the end of September to examine threats in Poland’s information environment and assess how institutions are responding to disinformation.
News17 August 2026
How is Poland portrayed in the Chinese infosphere? NASK experts explored how Russian narratives shape discussions about Poland and who benefits from their dissemination.
News23 July 2026
The weapons of the 21st century are no longer used solely on the battlefield. Conflict has expanded into cyberspace, the internet, and social media. That is why an effective response to foreign influence operations requires cooperation across borders. NASK, together with partners from Poland and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has signed a cooperation agreement aimed at strengthening information security in Europe.
News21 July 2026
Is what you see on TikTok driven solely by business considerations? A NASK study suggests that the platform’s content recommendation system may contribute to building a favourable image of China. Experts from NASK’s Disinformation Analysis Centre examined nearly 10,000 pieces of content related to six topics considered particularly sensitive by Beijing. The question remains: can the platform’s algorithm influence how China is perceived by Poles?
