What can be done about the explosion of disinformation?

**Bhagyashree Garekar** (0:02)
This is a podcast by The Straits Times.
Hello and welcome to Asian Insider. I'm your host, Bhagyashree Garekar, and we're recording this episode on Wednesday, the 17th of June, 2026
Our guest today is an expert on disinformation. Dr. Darrell West is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a prominent American think tank. Dr. West is the leading voice on technology and governance. He has carried out extensive research on how digital platforms shape public life and political communication. He is the co-author of a 2024 book, Lies That Kill, A Citizen's Guide to Disinformation. It explains how falsehoods spread and what citizens, institutions and policy makers can do to resist them. Welcome, Dr. West.

**Darrell West** (1:00)
Thank you. It's nice to be with you.

**Bhagyashree Garekar** (1:02)
Well, Dr. West, I'd like to first begin by asking you to define disinformation for us. How is it different from misinformation?
The other phrase that we keep hearing about, which is influence campaigns.

**Darrell West** (1:15)
Disinformation goes way beyond normal rumors. I mean, people are making up things all the time. Disinformation is organized in systematic efforts to manipulate people and to transmit narratives.
Because they are organized in systematic, often government entities are involved or organizations that are linked to a government.
Misinformation tends to be a little more informal, not as organized, not as systematic, and not necessarily linked to government entities.

**Bhagyashree Garekar** (1:47)
So, Dr. West, what instances of disinformation have caught your attention lately?

**Darrell West** (1:52)
There are many examples of disinformation all around the world. In Taiwan, for example, there have been organized efforts to disrupt Taiwanese democracy and to cast doubt on some of the regional allies that have been supporting Taiwan. In Japan, there have been stories circulating, stories, I should point out, that the grandfather of the Japanese Prime Minister killed people during World War II, which obviously that's a very hot button issue, especially around Asia.
There have been stories about water discharges from the Fukushima nuclear reactor being polluted and or radioactive, and therefore, endangering the seafood in that area. Seafood is a major export for Japan. So it's basically a way to try and undermine the Japanese economy. So there are just a few examples, but there are many everywhere around the world.

**Bhagyashree Garekar** (2:45)
So would you say that, because we are all heavy users of social media, internet. So in terms of the person at the receiving end, how likely are they to encounter information or disinformation in their everyday day-to-lives?

**Darrell West** (3:01)
If people are on social media platforms, they're going to see disinformation every day. And oftentimes, multiple times during the day. Social media platforms are major disseminators, both of misinformation and disinformation. There are narratives that spread. In an era of artificial intelligence, it's actually very easy to manufacture videos and audiotapes. So you might see a video that looks completely authentic to you, but is completely fake.
AI has become really good at foreign language translation. And so there are automated ways to translate any text, video or audio into dozens of different foreign languages. In a number of countries around the world, there may be 10, 15 or 20 different languages even within that country. So the ability to translate into whatever the native and local languages are in that particular country really allows you to scale up the disinformation. It means that you're not just limited to one language, but to the multiple languages that are available in a particular area.

**Bhagyashree Garekar** (4:12)
Right. So if we were thinking of disinformation like something that's produced, and you say that it is, where is the biggest source? Where is it coming from? Can we really say who's the largest producer of disinformation in today's context?

**Darrell West** (4:28)
Disinformation is generally coming from organized government efforts. And some of the largest purveyors of disinformation these days are China, Russia and Iran. Now, it's not limited to those countries. Other nations are doing it as well. But they are actually set up for what we call industrial style disinformation, meaning they have lots of people, they have lots of technical capability, they have social media platforms, they often have fake accounts that amplify these efforts. So in terms of the stuff that is actually reaching people and having an impact, people are worried about those countries in particular.

**Bhagyashree Garekar** (5:06)
I see. Since Iran is so much in the news, is there something you could tell us about Iran's attempt at disinformation in the context of the war?

**Darrell West** (5:18)
In any war these days, there's the military effort which involves troops, air raids, drones, and missiles. But then there's also the digital component. The information war sometimes is as important, if not more important than the military aspects. So in the case of Iran, both Israel and the United States have been very successful at destroying military targets through the bombing raids and the missile attacks that they have launched. But Iran has actually been very successful at waging the information war. Early in the war, for example, there was a US bomb that fell on a school in Iran.