"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."
— Often attributed to Mark Twain, though ironically there is no evidence he ever said it.
That quotation itself is a perfect introduction to the difference between misinformation and disinformation.
Millions of people have repeated it in good faith because they believed it was genuine. They were spreading misinformation.
If someone knew the quote was falsely attributed to Twain and deliberately used it anyway to lend authority to an argument, that would be disinformation.
The distinction seems simple, but these two words have a fascinating history that reaches from Cold War spy agencies to modern social media, and from innocent mistakes to carefully orchestrated deception campaigns.
Before the Words Existed
Human beings have always spread false information.
Ancient merchants exaggerated the quality of their goods. Soldiers inflated enemy casualties. Kings commissioned chronicles that made them appear heroic and wise.
What was missing was a precise vocabulary.
For most of history, falsehoods were simply called lies, rumors, propaganda, gossip, fraud, or mistakes. The modern distinction between misinformation and disinformation emerged only in the twentieth century.
The Birth of "Disinformation"
The term disinformation has an unexpectedly political origin.
Most historians trace its modern usage to the Russian word dezinformatsiya (дезинформация).
During the Soviet era, intelligence services developed elaborate techniques for influencing foreign governments and populations. These operations were known as "active measures."
Their goal was not merely to hide the truth. It was to manufacture alternative realities.
One famous Cold War anecdote illustrates the concept.
In the 1980s, Soviet intelligence helped circulate the story that the AIDS virus had been created by the United States military as a biological weapon. The claim appeared first in obscure newspapers and then spread through international media networks.
The architects of the campaign did not believe the story themselves.
That is the crucial point.
They created and distributed information they knew to be false in order to influence public opinion.
That was disinformation in its purest form.
Some Western observers later joked that the Soviet Union had elevated lying into a bureaucratic discipline.
Whether fair or not, the term "disinformation" became associated with deliberate deception carried out systematically and strategically.
The Older Cousin: Misinformation
The word misinformation actually appeared earlier in English than disinformation.
It emerged from a much simpler idea.
The prefix mis- means "wrong" or "incorrect."
A person who is misinformed is simply mistaken.
No conspiracy is required.
No malicious intent is necessary.
Imagine a villager in medieval Europe hearing that a comet means the end of the world. He repeats the warning to his neighbors because he genuinely believes it.
That is misinformation.
Centuries later, the mechanism remains unchanged.
A social media user shares a post claiming that drinking a particular herbal tea cures cancer. The user wants to help people. The claim is false, but the intent is benevolent.
Again, misinformation.
The information is wrong, but the motive is not deception.
The Campfire Story
Imagine a traveler arriving at a village.
He tells everyone that a bridge ten miles away has collapsed.
The villagers avoid the road.
The next day they discover the bridge is perfectly intact.
There are two possibilities.
Scenario 1: Misinformation
The traveler genuinely thought the bridge had collapsed because someone else told him so.
He passed along incorrect information.
He was wrong.
This is misinformation.
Scenario 2: Disinformation
The traveler knew the bridge was safe.
He invented the story because he wanted fewer people using the road so that his own caravan could move more quickly.
This is disinformation.
The outcome is identical.
The villagers are misled.
The difference lies entirely in intent.
Why Intent Matters
This distinction is more than academic.
It changes how society should respond.
When dealing with misinformation, education is often the best remedy.
The person spreading the claim is a potential ally in finding the truth.
When dealing with disinformation, the challenge is different.
The source may not care about truth at all.
Correction alone may not work because deception is the objective.
This difference explains why public health agencies often distinguish between people who unknowingly share false medical claims and organizations that intentionally manufacture them.
One group needs better information.
The other may be actively resisting it.
The Social Media Revolution
For centuries, spreading false information required effort.
One had to print pamphlets, publish newspapers, or deliver speeches.
Today a rumor can reach millions of people in minutes.
This has created a remarkable phenomenon.
A single piece of disinformation can generate enormous quantities of misinformation.
Imagine someone deliberately fabricates a false story.
That is disinformation.
Thousands of readers believe it and share it sincerely.
Those shares become misinformation.
The original spark was intentional deception.
The resulting wildfire consists largely of honest mistakes.
In this way, misinformation and disinformation often coexist.
One creates the other.
The Forgotten Third Category: Malinformation
In recent years scholars have added a third concept: malinformation.
Unlike misinformation or disinformation, malinformation may actually be true.
The harm comes from the way the information is used.
Suppose private medical records are leaked online to embarrass an individual.
The records may be authentic.
The information is not false.
Yet it is being deployed to cause damage.
That is malinformation.
The distinction reminds us that truth and ethics are not always the same thing.
A Lesson from Sherlock Holmes
There is a useful literary example.
In the stories of Sherlock Holmes, a witness might provide an incorrect description of a suspect because he genuinely remembered events incorrectly.
That is misinformation.
A criminal who deliberately provides a false description to misdirect the investigation is spreading disinformation.
Holmes understood that solving mysteries often required distinguishing between honest error and intentional deceit.
Modern societies face the same challenge on a much larger scale.
Why These Words Matter Today
The digital age has transformed everyone into both a consumer and a broadcaster of information.
A person can share a claim with thousands of people by pressing a button.
As a result, the ability to distinguish misinformation from disinformation has become an essential civic skill.
When encountering a questionable claim, two questions are worth asking:
- Is the information accurate?
- If it is inaccurate, was the source mistaken or deceptive?
The first question seeks truth.
The second seeks motive.
Together they reveal whether we are dealing with misinformation or disinformation.
The Final Irony
The history of these terms contains a delightful irony.
Many people learn the distinction through examples that themselves turn out to be inaccurate.
A quotation falsely attributed to a famous person.
A historical anecdote that never happened.
A statistic repeated so often it acquires an aura of truth.
Most of these are not grand conspiracies.
They are simply human beings passing along stories they believe.
That is why misinformation is probably older than civilization itself.
Disinformation requires planners, strategists, and intent.
Misinformation requires only something much more common:
People trying to make sense of the world, and occasionally getting it wrong.
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