DISINFO DEFENSE LEAGUE
NARRATIVE INTELLIGENCE, FORECASTING, AND COUNTERINFLUENCE STRATEGY
WHAT IS THE DISINFO DEFENSE LEAGUE?
The Disinfo Defense League (DDL) is a narrative intelligence and forecasting project that equips civil society partners to anticipate, understand, and counter harmful narratives. DDL delivers timely research, deep analysis, strategic guidance, and practical tools to help partners recognize emerging threats, understand the forces driving them, and respond with precision and speed.
Founded in 2020 to address the racial and cultural dimensions of online mis- and disinformation, DDL now further applies that expertise across the broader information ecosystem. Its work reveals how influence moves through communities, identifies moments of heightened vulnerability, and helps civil society shape the narratives that determine what people understand, value, and believe is possible.
MEETING THE MOMENT THROUGH NARRATIVE INTELLIGENCE
The networked information systems we all use to communicate are increasingly used to distort collective understanding and manufacture consent for repression, surveillance, supremicism, censorship, xenophobia, and violence.
Social media platforms have sharply reduced moderation and restricted researchers’ access to the data needed to understand how information moves online. At the same time, disinformation campaigns and influence operations have grown more sophisticated, coordinated, and targeted. These operations test messages in receptive online spaces before carrying them to broader audiences, focus influence efforts on politically consequential geographic areas, and seed narratives that erode trust in democratic processes in order to justify policies that restrict participation and rights.
Civil society organizations need the capacity to see these efforts taking shape before they reach a crisis point. They need straightforward and effective strategies for intervention, to protect their communities online and build narrative power.
The Disinfo Defense League provides that capacity.
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT
DDL delivers narrative intelligence and forecasting insights directly to the organizers and advocates who need it most. Our research team provides regular updates, 1:1 analyst support, and bespoke resources for partners seeking strategic guidance, interpretation of findings, and narrative planning.
DDL helps partners build in-house expertise with capacity-building training on narrative literacy, platform and tool workshops, case study reviews, technical skills, research methods, and approaches to engaging within their information ecosystem.
DDL helps our partners understand their role in the information landscape based on their expertise, relationships, and capacity to hone in on opportunities to interrupt, redirect, or take part in the formation of influential narratives before they redefine the status quo.
The surveillance state is expanding its reach – and Big Tech is fueling it.
Solidarity Over Surveillance (#SOS) is a multistate effort and hub for individuals, communities and organizations who want to join the fight against corporate and government-sponsored surveillance.
Our Networked Community
DDL’s league of more than 400 civil society organizers, advocates, researchers, and academics represents over 250 organizations. Members work across issues and communities to counter misleading and manipulative narratives, reduce the harms of mis- and disinformation, and resist authoritarian uses of information.