Structured expert elicitation on disinformation, misinformation, and malign influence: Barriers, strategies, and opportunities

We used a modified Delphi method to elicit and synthesize experts’ views on disinformation, misinformation, and malign influence (DMMI). In a three-part process, experts first independently generated a range of effective strategies for combatting DMMI, identified the most impactful barriers to combatting DMMI, and proposed areas for future research. In the second stage, experts deliberated over the results of the first stage and in the final stage, experts rated and ranked the strategies, barriers, and opportunities for future research. Research into intervention effectiveness was a strategy that received the highest level of agreement, while robust platform regulation was deemed the strategy of highest priority to address. They also identified distrust in institutions, biases, political divisions, relative inattention to non-English-language DMMI, and politicians’ use of DMMI as major barriers to combatting DMMI. Vulnerability to DMMI was chosen by experts as the top priority for future study. Experts also agreed with definitions of disinformation as deliberately false/misleading information and misinformation as unintentionally so.