A guide to disinformation for local councillors

The LGA has developed this guide in response to interest from councillors seeking support in approaching and countering disinformation. It sets out key definitions and tangible actions councillors can take to respond effectively.

This guidance is designed specifically for councillors, supporting their day-to-day work when faced with disinformation. A separate LGA guide exists for officers, whose focus is typically on the council as an organisation – its brand, strategic priorities, and corporate documents – whereas councillors tend to concentrate on their communities and political priorities. You can find more in-depth and academic definitions of words such as ‘narrative’ and ‘brand’ in the above linked guide.

Before exploring practical steps, it’s useful to understand two relevant terms:

• Misinformation: false information shared without intent to mislead.
• Disinformation: false information shared with the intent to deceive.

In this resource, ‘disinformation’ is used as an umbrella term for all two, though recognising the differences is important when deciding how to respond.

It is important, when discussing disinformation, to emphasise the ‘information’ aspect of it. By way of example, calling somebody ‘left-wing’ or ‘right-wing’ is open to opinion and interpretation. However, stating that somebody is a member of a specific organisation, when they are not, would be disinformation.

Disinformation can harm local government’s ability to deliver vital services. It might mislead the public about public health measures, create rumours to disrupt council meetings, spread false narratives that radicalise individuals, target elected officials with fabricated claims, or incite violence and criminal damage. In extreme cases, disinformation can be a criminal offence: the Online Safety Act has introduced a false communications offence, which occurs when an individual conveys information online that they know to be false, with the intention of causing non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience.

Many councillors view this as a serious and growing challenge. The aim here is to increase awareness, provide practical tools, and support informed decision-making, recognising that responses will vary depending on circumstances.

The threat lies not only in individual false claims, damaging as these can be, but also in the cumulative effect of repeated examples. Over time, these reinforce harmful narratives about specific communities and erode trust in democratic institutions and processes.

Your in-house communications function can provide support and advice if you encounter disinformation. It is worth checking whether they are responding to an issue corporately before you comment. They may advise against doing so, or ask you to amplify their response. Either way, it is advisable to seek that advice – particularly if the subject of the disinformation you have encountered is a sensitive one.

The LGA works closely with local government communications teams across the country to help share best practice, make connections and link them directly into the Home Office and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. This has especially been the case with the Home Office recently in the disinformation space.

Your communications team may also provide access to other helpful services when encountering disinformation online. Most will have established a protocol – including dos and don'ts – for using social media, and will also offer training for councillors. Some teams will also use social listening platforms, which enable them to monitor public conversations about issues across different social media accounts. This is helpful for determining whether instances of disinformation are isolated or something more widespread and potentially serious.

You will most often encounter disinformation as individual messages containing false or misleading information. Where multiple messages appear on the same topic, you may be able to identify an underlying narrative they support or construct. Recognising these broader narratives can help in understanding the intent behind the disinformation and its possible origin – a crucial first step.

Intent can be hard to determine, but considering the sources and patterns of harmful messages may help build a picture. Different actors may share similar content for different reasons. Developing situational awareness of what is being shared, who is sharing it, how it is being spread, and why is important.

Adversarial actors often link their activity to specific “trigger” issues, which are typically politically controversial. When addressing misinformation on such topics, it is useful to distinguish between legitimate political debate and the cynical exploitation of controversy for harmful ends. False or misleading content can heighten tensions, attribute malice to those with opposing views, and falsely associate them with conspiracy theories.

It is also important to remember that disinformation often functions as clickbait. Those sharing it may be motivated solely by the desire to attract likes, clicks, revenue and/or personal publicity claims that anger or outrage the reader are vital to these actors. Those posting disinformation in pursuit of a political agenda sometimes profit monetarily from publicity.

This can turn legitimate political disagreement into deep, ideologically charged division. The tactic of spreading fear and division through false or misleading content is a common tool for extremist agitators.

The Government Communication Service (GCS) has produced useful counter-disinformation toolkits. RESIST 2 and RESIST 3 are two such toolkits which may be of interest.

There are several tools to help decide whether disinformation requires a response. These prompt you to consider the issue in the context of your role as a councillor, including its potential impact on your residents, communities, and local safety. The table below can be tailored to answer questions specific to your needs.

You may also wish to consider the likely reach of the content – whether it could gain significant attention or remain niche. Working with officers to conduct regular risk assessments will help you understand how disinformation might affect your community, identify key influencers, and determine your priority audiences.

In some authorities, communications or community safety teams can provide information on known topics and assist with forward planning to address disinformation.

Due to the political nature of the role, it is likely that councillors encounter disinformation quite regularly. When you do:

If the disinformation concerns you, the council, or its staff, the tools in the next section can help you decide how to respond.

If you have shared disinformation, recently or in the past, first assess the level of engagement. If there was low, to no engagement then simply delete the post or undo the ‘share’/’retweet’. If the engagement was high and was recent, prepare a response explaining that the information was false and what the truth is. Then post this response in the comments of the post, or reshare the post with the new response. You can, of course, do both. It is important that you reach those people you originally reached, rather than amplifying the situation to those who did not even see the original post.

An alternative method, therefore, is to delete your original post and create a new post, explaining why the old one was removed and what the truth is.

Anyone can accidentally share misinformation, especially individuals involved in politics. One such example from 2024 would be the Chief Executive of Hope Not Hate sharing misinformation about an alleged acid attack. When the police confirmed that they had received no reports of this, he corrected himself saying “Hold my hands up if my initial tweet was wrong. Won’t comment further until more information is known.” Sometimes waiting for more information is more beneficial than attempting to put out a response immediately.

Once you have decided to respond to the disinformation, it is worth considering the different options at your disposal. While in many cases a straightforward rebuttal will suffice, others may require a broader, coordinated approach.

Possible approaches include:

When deciding whether to act, weigh not only the reach of the disinformation but also the likely reach of your response.

In some cases, creating networks among local government representatives from across the country (or region) facing similar challenges can be an effective countermeasure. This is especially the case because some local disinformation can be connected to national, and even transnational coordinated efforts.

Community engagement is made difficult if your communications do not align with the reality of the situation, consequently there is a risk of alienating the public and undermining credibility and trust. Community level engagement is an important way to keep other forms of communication realistic, relatable and credible.

Perceived silence can contribute to an information void and lead to community irritation. Equally, elected members can sometimes feel pressure to take a public stance on an issue they may not feel comfortable speaking on. It can be useful to get a sense of your local communities, possibly via community safety/cohesion officers, and therefore formulate an appropriate response, especially if it relates to a particularly controversial issue.

As a last resort you can also report disinformation to alert platforms, fact checkers or your legal team at the council.

This section outlines examples of effective countermeasures. These are usually measures that council staff would lead on, from comms, engagement and community safety teams. However, from your unique position as a councillor, you can play a crucial role in bringing communities together, disseminating helpful information and calming tensions

Disinformation targeting PREVENT referrals was being spread in a community, suggesting that referrals were being made against families that supported one specific country. Representatives of local government asked credible religious representatives to host a closed meeting where religious leaders would chair and invite attendees. They took responsibility for the conduct of the event. It was constructive and gave different parts of the community a voice. Following the event, the religious leaders published an open letter about the issue, which was considered constructive.

As a councillor, you could be helping find those local leaders and subsequently helping publicise their constructive messaging.

A council had received criticism for how it had historically dealt with child sexual exploitation cases and survivors of abuse. To remedy this, the council funded and participated in a community group, created a charter, and worked closely with the community to improve the services available. The result was that survivors and community groups became active participants in debating about the issues and levels of support available.

Following a publicised altercation between secondary school children, rumours began to circulate that the children of asylum seekers had attacked local children. However, the opposite was true. The police debunked those messages very quickly, and local government amplified those messages and appealed to the public to stop spreading misinformation. The approach gained wide reach and calmed community unease. As councillors, you can use your voice to help in this way.

It is also constructive, when stories like these are developing, to ensure that any information you share is truthful and helpful. You can check this by speaking to officers, police or councillor colleagues more directly involved. The LGA has developed a range of guidance and tools to support councillors and candidates in their online communications, which you can also use to limit the spread of disinformation.

Though silence can sometimes cause a harmful void, it is preferable to sharing false information. Once false information is shared, it is unlikely that those who read it will then read any correction after the fact. This is especially the case for false information shared by public figures, such as elected officials.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that key messages about public health issues did not reach all communities. One local government office sent short messages about vaccinations to leaders of mosques, which would be read out on Fridays. The result was that credible voices would share important information to audiences that had previously been hard to reach. As before, councillors can play a key role in identifying community leaders and subsequently disseminating useful information from those communities, to help legitimise the messaging.

In one area, protesters livestreamed a two-hour demonstration which was seen as inflammatory. The council made a public appeal for calm, put a frequently asked questions (FAQ) resource on its website, and hosted a closed meeting with community representatives. The council also organised interventions in schools and offered support to victims of harassment. The approach helped to calm the public.

Following the illumination of Christmas lights, posts were shared on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting that a council supported a polarising political issue by projecting partisan colours onto the Christmas tree. The council responded promptly by debunking the disinformation and sharing alternative images depicting the range of colours projected during the Christmas event.

This can be especially poignant from local councillors. For example, if there is a falsehood regarding your ward/division, you can debunk disinformation by sharing your own pictures of an event, or by simply showing up yourself if it is safe to do so.

A disinformation campaign targeting staff and councillors began to cause serious disruptions in the work of a council. People identified as causing harm to property or harassing staff and councillors were issued temporary banning orders. This helped to calm tensions and allowed the work of the council to resume. In a time of heightened political division, tension and sometimes violence, you should not hesitate to contact security or the police if you are worried about your safety, or the safety of a colleague.

Councillors became the target of continuous disinformation campaigns. The false claims were designed to radicalise young people and posed a security threat. The PREVENT team refined the structure of their internal network to foster a more unified voice and enable an effective response. Coordination centred on the creation of a secure online space for stakeholders to share information on current events, threat assessments, calendars, messages from senior officers as well as reports. This hub of information helped to build the team's confidence and coordination.

Disinformation about a PREVENT team targeting specific social groups led to the loss of trust between the team and some members of the local community. The team organised critical thinking workshops to educate young people and their parents about disinformation. Attendees were shown samples of deep fake videos and misinformation about COVID-19, as well as techniques used by extreme right-wing groups and Islamist extremists.

The goal was to teach the public how to identify fake information and think critically before sharing information. Critical thinking workshops have proven to be an effective means of staying connected with local communities, and face-to-face communication has contributed to overall trust-building.

For support on issues regarding community cohesion, safety and disinformation you can contact [email protected]. You can find additional resources and information about councillor safety, including online safety on our Civility in Public Life Hub

You can instead, where appropriate and for issues that may be more politically sensitive, contact your respective political group office. Below are the contact email addresses for each political group office:

• Labour group: [email protected]
• Conservative group: [email protected]
• Liberal Democrat group: [email protected]
• Independent group (including Green Party and smaller party councillors): [email protected]
• Reform UK group: [email protected]

For communications support, such as social media training for councillors or public affairs workshops for comms teams, you can email [email protected] or have a look at the Comms Hub

We also have a digital resource for councillors to help with your general online communications.