Disinformation is wrong information spread deliberately to deceive. A disinformation campaign, spread disinformation, counter disinformation.
The deliberateness is the distinction: misinformation is wrong and repeated in good faith, disinformation is wrong and planted on purpose — and the same false claim can be both, depending on who is passing it on. The word came into English in the twentieth century from intelligence work.
1noundisinformationWrong information spread deliberately to deceive.
“The enemy spread disinformation on social media to cause panic.”
disinformation is false information.
Dis- plus information, attested in this sense from 1939, and modelled on a Russian term from intelligence work.
Middle English
enformacioun
English
information
English, today
disinformation
Built from
Composed of dis- + information. Attested in the sense “intentional misinformation” in English from 1939. A different usage of disinformation occurred earlier, as early as 1887, as a simple synonym of misinformation. information comes from Middle English enformacioun. From Middle English enformacioun, informacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman informacioun, enformation, Old French information, from Latin īnfōrmātiō (“formation, conception; education”), from the participle stem of īnformāre (“to inform”). Equivalent to inform + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA