Reference

Glossary.

Key terms from the open-source intelligence and information-integrity field — the vocabulary behind our research and platform.

OSINT: Intelligence produced from publicly available information — social media, websites, public records, news, and other open sources — collected, verified, and analysed for research, security, or investigative purposes. It relies on lawful access to information anyone could obtain, not covert collection.
Misinformation: False or misleading information that is shared without the intent to deceive. The person spreading it generally believes it to be true. Intent is what separates it from disinformation.
Disinformation: False or misleading information that is created and spread deliberately to deceive, manipulate, or cause harm. Unlike misinformation, disinformation is intentional and often coordinated.
Malinformation: Genuine information that is shared deliberately to cause harm — for example, leaked private data, selectively framed facts, or content moved out of context. It is true but weaponised, completing the mis-/dis-/mal-information triad.
FIMI: A mostly non-illegal pattern of behaviour by foreign state or non-state actors that threatens or negatively affects values, procedures, and political processes. FIMI is intentional, coordinated, and often relies on manipulative and inauthentic behaviour rather than the truth or falsity of any single claim.
DIMI: The domestic counterpart to FIMI — coordinated, manipulative interference in the information environment carried out by actors operating within a country rather than from abroad. The tactics mirror FIMI; the distinction is the origin of the actor.
Influence Operation: An organised effort to shape the perceptions, opinions, or behaviour of a target audience, often covertly and across multiple channels. Influence operations may combine authentic messaging with manipulative or inauthentic tactics to advance a strategic goal.
Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior: Groups of accounts, pages, or assets working together to mislead people about who is behind an effort and what they are doing. A platform-origin concept (popularised by Meta), CIB focuses on deceptive behaviour and coordination rather than the content itself.
Bot Network: A set of automated or semi-automated accounts operated in concert to post, repost, and amplify content at scale. Bot networks manufacture the impression of volume and consensus and are a common engine of inorganic amplification.
Sock Puppet: A fake online identity created to deceive — used to praise, attack, or manufacture the appearance of independent support while concealing the operator's true identity. Networks of sock puppets are a building block of influence operations.
Troll Farm: An organised, often state-linked group of people paid to flood platforms with manipulative posts, comments, and replies. Troll farms blend human operators with automation to harass targets and steer conversations.
Astroturfing: Manufacturing the appearance of spontaneous, grassroots support (or opposition) that is in fact centrally orchestrated and funded. The name contrasts fake 'grassroots' with artificial 'astroturf'.
Inorganic Amplification: Artificially boosting the reach of content through bots, coordinated sharing, or paid engagement rather than genuine audience interest. Detecting it usually means comparing observed spread against expected organic behaviour.
Narrative Laundering: Moving a false or manipulative narrative through a chain of channels — from fringe sources toward mainstream outlets — so its origin is obscured and it gains a veneer of credibility along the way.
Deepfake: AI-generated or AI-manipulated audio, video, or imagery that convincingly depicts people saying or doing things that never happened. Synthetic media lowers the cost of fabricating persuasive evidence at scale.
Information Warfare: The strategic use, manipulation, denial, and disruption of information and information systems to gain advantage over an adversary. It spans propaganda, influence operations, cyber operations, and electronic warfare, treating the information environment itself as a contested space.
Psychological Operations: Planned operations that convey selected information and indicators to audiences in order to influence their emotions, motives, reasoning, and ultimately their behaviour. PSYOP is a structured, doctrine-driven sibling of broader influence operations.
Cognitive Warfare: The use of information and psychological techniques to shape the perceptions, beliefs, emotions, and decision-making of a target population. It treats the human mind as a domain of conflict — aiming to influence how people think, not just what information they receive.
Hybrid Warfare: The blending of conventional, irregular, cyber, economic, and information tactics — often kept below the threshold of open armed conflict (the 'gray zone') — to pressure or destabilise an adversary while preserving deniability.
Attribution: The analytic process of linking activity — accounts, campaigns, and infrastructure — to a responsible actor, using behavioural, technical, and contextual evidence. Confident attribution underpins accountability, but is often expressed with calibrated levels of certainty.