Disinformation in the City: Response Playbook

As actors responsible for decisions and policies that shape people’s daily lives, and as those most aware of community fault lines that are fertile ground for disinformation, city officials are well positioned to respond. Yet, research, analysis, and policymaking related to disinformation have remained at the national and international levels. GMF, the Melbourne Centre for Cities, and other partners have developed a response playbook to help inform and guide city policies and practices to counter disinformation and ultimately to strengthen democracy.

In cities, disinformation sometimes manifests itself in physical events, including protests and disruptions. It also has individual impacts for political, institutional, and community leaders and staff. Disinformation affects the functioning of city administrations and elected bodies, impacting governance and policymaking. It also impacts communities, reducing mutual trust and increasing division and polarization. 

Disinformation commonly exploits existing social fault lines and polarization. In cities, the fault lines targeted by disinformation center around First Nations, migrants, cultural diversity, gender and sexual diversity, health and wellbeing, sustainability and climate issues, and urban planning. 

Understanding how disinformation spreads, and how to respond effectively, is critical for city governments. Current knowledge, however, is focused mainly on the national and international realms and not readily accessible and translatable for urban governance needs. 

This is why GMF Cities, in response to needs expressed by many city governments, developed this playbook in collaboration with a core interdisciplinary research team from the Australian National University, Monash University, Deakin University, and Victoria University, led by the Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne. 

The playbook was developed with representatives from cities, media, the tech sector, civil society, and academia. The process began with an in-depth survey to understand the current experiences of participating cities and responses to disinformation they employed. The findings informed a series of workshops with 40 participants who together created the content of and recommendations in the playbook. The full draft was reviewed by the participants before it was submitted to other cities, city networks, disinformation experts, and other levels of government for pressure testing. 

The playbook covers the ways cities can: 

• build trust by displaying competence, consistency, and transparency, and by strategically engaging with trusted institutions, people, and information sources, as well as safe places. 
• build community by understanding and addressing fault lines, bringing people together, reinforcing social expectations on ethical and critical engagement with information, and creating a shared vision to strengthen social cohesion and build collective civic identities. 
• communicate and listen by establishing robust and trusted information-sharing networks; assessing the various types and severity of impacts that disinformation has on local groups and institutions; and developing effective communications mechanisms to reach the desired audiences in critical moments.
• collaborate across:

1. cities, encouraging innovation, exchange, and shared learning on good and bad practices, and allowing for collective impact and advocacy with large private corporations and other levels of government.
2. sectors, enabling cities to benefit from the different types of expertise, skills, and capacities of other key stakeholders in their local communities (media, universities, civil society groups, and so on).
3. levels of government, allowing cities to benefit from and inform specialized staff expertise and existing disinformation response tools at the state, national, and supranational levels.

The playbook also includes principles for city administrations to apply in designing their policies and processes so that their disinformation response is focused on agility, preparedness, and the well-being of staff and the community. 

Dynamic, innovative, and responsible cities are well positioned to respond to disinformation, but they need new resources, tools, and skills such as those outlined in the playbook to better prepare and respond effectively. For those seeking to strengthen the resilience of democracy, it is important to consider and coordinate with cities as key actors addressing this growing challenge.