Authors

Discussion

In the context of the rise of disinformation, references to fake news have also become a ubiquitous feature of elite, expert, and journalistic discourse. From Donald Trump to Viktor Orban, politicians and leaders have been relying on fake news discourse to discredit oppositional media and political rivals. Following democracies, authoritarian leaders across the world have adopted the same rhetoric. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents a new stage in the use of disinformation discourse - accusations of spreading disinformation and fake news - as a tool. While using it to deflect criticism is not new in Russian politics, the new stage is characterized by a larger scale. Scholars find that elite disinformation discourse can be as harmful as disinformation itself. By reminding citizens about disinformation, elites can dampen their ability to identify reliable information and decrease media trust. This study relies on a preregistered online experiment (N=3,900) to explore the effect of disinformation discourse on citizens in authoritarian Russia. We expose subjects to three news stories (Russia’s missile attack in Ukraine, inflation in Russia, electoral falsifications in Russia) with pro-regime or anti-regime framing. We then expose subjects in treatment groups to debunking claims attributed to a pro-government Telegram group utilising disinformation discourse as a propaganda tool to deflect criticism of the government or to an oppositional fact-checking agency.  We explore the effect of disinformation discourse on perceived credibility of a debunked story, general media trust, and ability to attribute responsibility for the invasion.