The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread

by Cailin O'Connor

Many of the methods of modern propaganda were developed by the United States during World War I. From April 1917 until August 1919, the Committee on Public Information (CPI) conducted a systematic campaign to sell US participation in the war to the American public.17 The CPI produced films, posters, and printed publications, and it had offices in ten countries, including the United States. In some cases it fed newspapers outright lies about American activities in Europe—and occasionally got caught, leading the New York Times to run an editorial calling it the Committee on Public Misinformation. One member of the group later described its activities as “psychological warfare.”