[Lgpolicy] The man who tricked Nazi Germany: Lessons from the past on how to beat disinformation

[Francis M. Hult via Lgpolicy]

The Guardian

The man who tricked Nazi Germany: Lessons from the past on how to beat
disinformation

Across the world we see the growth of propaganda that promotes an
alternative reality where black is white and white is black, and where
truth is cast away in favour of a sense of superiority and ever more
murderous paranoia. How can we defeat it?...We are not, however, the first
generation to confront the challenge of authoritarian propaganda...If we
think reaching people in “echo chambers” today is tough, think about how
hard it was to persuade Germans to trust the people who were literally
trying to kill them. This campaign was led by Sefton Delmer,

Delmer understood the need to engage people around their own interests
rather than what you might like them to care about, and this is a lesson
Ukrainian info warriors have been learning in their war with Russia.
Ukraine is full of advertisers and hackers, activists and journalists all
trying to reach Russian audiences.

They buy ads on Russian pornography sites and bootleg movie portals or use
cold calling software more familiar from marketing campaigns. Early on they
found that “moral” content didn’t take off. When they made mass telephone
calls to Russians, they found that some 80% would hang up during the first
20 seconds if the calls were about war crimes, but only 30% hung up when
the call focused on their personal interests, such as a special tax they
had to pay to support Russia’s newly occupied lands.

Full story:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/02/the-man-who-tricked-nazi-germany-lessons-from-the-past-on-how-to-beat-disinformation
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