---
title: Countering propaganda
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/countering/
description: What has been tried against propaganda and disinformation, who tried it, and what the measured effects were, including null results, backfire findings…
section: Learn
---

![Illustration: a contemporary investigator's evidence wall of printed social-media posts, network diagrams and a pinned world map, in the same dossier style as the rest of the archive.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-contemporary-evidence-wall.jpg)

[Learn](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/)

# Countering propaganda

On this page

What has been tried against propaganda and disinformation, who tried it, and what the measured effects were, including null results, backfire findings and the criticism each approach drew from across the spectrum.

The section has two parts:

- **Methods** (this folder): research-led pages on each approach. Each carries an evidence rating that summarises the published record, not FRAME's view of whether the method is good.
- **Cases** (in [case studies](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/)): the history of specific bodies and programmes, from the 1937 Institute for Propaganda Analysis to the units set up after 2014.

## Evidence ratings

| Rating | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| strong | Replicated by independent teams, in realistic settings, with effects that last. No method here reaches this yet. |
| moderate | Replicated by independent teams, but effects are modest or measured mostly in surveys. |
| mixed | Some replicated positive results alongside null results, fading effects or side effects. |
| contested | The main claim of effect is disputed in the published record. |

## Methods

| Page | Evidence | What the record shows |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Inoculation and prebunking](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/inoculation-and-prebunking/) | mixed | People reliably learn to name manipulation techniques in tests; whether that improves telling true from false news, and for how long, is disputed. |
| [Fact-checking and corrections](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/fact-checking/) | moderate | Corrections move beliefs toward accuracy on average and rarely backfire, but effects are modest, fade, and did not change views of the politician corrected in the one US test. |
| [Media literacy](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/media-literacy/) | mixed | Short-term gains in classroom and survey experiments; some field trials found none, and some studies find extra distrust of true news. |
| [Platform interventions: labels, nudges, notes, friction and takedowns](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/platform-interventions/) | mixed | Labels, notes, prompts and bans cut sharing or belief somewhat in the studies that exist; several have side effects or nulls, and many figures are the platforms' own. |
| [The debate over counter-disinformation](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/debates/) | mixed | The argument over counter-disinformation itself: whether the category is sound, whether it became censorship, whether it empowers states over dissent, or whether it does too little. |

## Cases

| Case | Actor | When |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (1937-1942)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/institute-for-propaganda-analysis/) | Institute for Propaganda Analysis (US, private) | 1937-1942 |
| [World War II rumor clinics and rumor control (1940 to 1947)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/wwii-rumor-clinics/) | US and UK rumor clinics and rumor control | 1940-1947 |
| [Cold War radio jamming (1948 to 1988)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cold-war-radio-jamming/) | Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact; UK over Cyprus | 1948-1988 |
| [The Active Measures Working Group (1981 to 1992)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/active-measures-working-group/) | US interagency working group | 1981-1992 |
| [Finland's media literacy model](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/finland-media-literacy/) | Finnish government and schools | 2013 onwards |
| [Baltic counter-disinformation: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/baltic-counter-disinformation/) | Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania | 2014 onwards |
| [EUvsDisinfo and the EEAS East StratCom Task Force](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/euvsdisinfo-east-stratcom/) | EU External Action Service | 2015 onwards |
| [The State Department's Global Engagement Center (2016 to 2025)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/global-engagement-center/) | US State Department | 2016-2025 |
| [Hamilton 68: the Russian-influence dashboard and its secret account list](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/hamilton-68-dashboard/) | Alliance for Securing Democracy (US) | 2017-2018 |
| [Laws against "fake news": Germany, France and Malaysia under one standard](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fake-news-laws/) | Germany, France and Malaysia | 2017-2019 |
| [Government fact-check units: Russia, China, India and Ukraine](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/government-fact-check-units/) | Russia, China, India and Ukraine | 2017 onwards |
| [The UK's Counter Disinformation Unit and its sister units (2019 to 2024)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/uk-counter-disinformation-unit/) | UK government | 2019-2024 |
| [The DHS Disinformation Governance Board (2022)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/dhs-disinformation-governance-board/) | US Department of Homeland Security | 2022 |

## Rules for this section

- **Same standard for every side.** A state rebuttal unit, a fact-checker or a platform label is described the same way whichever government, party or company runs it. Every case page has a **same-method test**.
- **Report effects as measured.** Pages give the study design, the sample and the caveats, and include null and backfire results. A company's own figure is marked as such.
- **Criticism from every direction.** Each page records criticism from the right, the left, civil-liberties groups and targeted governments where it exists, and says so when a direction has none on the record.
- **Tag techniques only on evidence.** Most pages here record a counter-measure, not propaganda output, and carry no technique tags.
- **Images.** Openly licensed only. Provenance for this section's images is in images.json.

## Adding a page

1. A method page goes here as `counter/counter-<slug>.md` with `type: counter` and an `evidence:` rating. A historical case goes in `case-studies/<slug>.md` with `type: case-study`.
2. Add a row to the tables above, and for a case, to the case studies index.
3. Run `python3 scripts/weekly_audit.py --markdown-check` and the bias panel (`scripts/bias_panel.py`), which covers `counter/*.md`.

## Related

- [Inoculation and prebunking](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/inoculation-and-prebunking/)
- [Fact-checking and corrections](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/fact-checking/)
- [Media literacy](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/media-literacy/)
- [Platform interventions: labels, nudges, notes, friction and takedowns](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/platform-interventions/)
- [The debate over counter-disinformation](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/debates/)