<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Disinformation is false information deliberately given from one individual or group to another.

It is most commonly associated with the military and intelligence agencies.

Disinformation may be used for a variety of reasons:

• Disinformation might be given to misdirect opponents from another objective. For example, false information might be "leaked" to indicate that there was one objective (forcing the person receiving the information to commit resources to that target) when the actual target was something else. It has been suggested that stories of UFOs at Area 51 may have been augmented by the military to focus the interest of UFO buffs on one base, making it easier to manage their activities

• Disinformation might be fed to an investigator and later shown publicly to be false, discrediting that investigator. It has been suggested that Richard Doty (aka "Falcon" of The Aviary) may have attempted this

• Disinformation might be released just to see how the information travels through a community: who responds to it and in what way, and how quickly it travels and to where. A story like that is called a "floater". It has been suggested that the initial reports of El Chupacabra in Puerto Rico may have been a floater

• Disinformation might be given as part of a cover-up. In the movie Men in Black, cover stories are given to conceal alien activity (and, if possible, to improve the witnesses' lives)

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