The word “fake news”, perhaps popularised during the US 2016 presidential election, has become an important reality in today’s media landscape. However, what most people may not know is that fake news is the purview of a brand new science: agnotology.
Agnotology is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour. It was coined in the late 1970s when Robert Proctor, science historian from Stanford University, began looking into Tobacco company’s deliberate spread of misinformation around the health risks of smoking. The term is an amalgamation of agnosis, the Greek word for “not knowing”, and ontology, the philosophical study of being.
When we use the word “fake news” we are, in a way, dismissing information without looking into the reasons behind it, perhaps boiling it down to the actions of a bad intentioned individual; this creates a neat distinction between “real” and “fake” news. Although it might sound beneficial to separate the truth from imagination, the simplicity of the expression has also been deployed to sow doubt among the general public. By using agnotology, we can understand the reasons behind misinformation campaigns and whether or not something is truly “fake”.
The issue with Climate Change
One of the greatest examples of wilful acts to spread confusion is the case of the Climate Crisis. In the 1970s, as data suggested we had been severely damaging our planet through the use of fossil fuels, companies such as Exxon and Mobil started funding climate change denial campaigns. These campaigns have continued since that time, and even today world leaders spread doubt and misinformation around this issue.
The current President of the United States, Donald Trump, has spoken plainly about his views on climate change. When asked about the findings that climate change would have a devastating economic impact, Mr Trump said: “I don’t believe it“. The President also acted on his disbelief, backing out of the Paris Agreement and undoing a lot of the environmental initiatives started by the previous administration. These kinds of action can lead to grave consequences for our planet, which is why some are calling for the criminisation of misinformation and greenwashing.
Elisa Morgera, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change, claimed that states should: «criminalise misinformation and misrepresentation (greenwashing) by the fossil fuel industry” and “criminalise media and advertising firms for amplifying disinformation and misinformation by fossil fuel companies».
Agnotology used to manipulate elections
Although climate misinformation is yet to be criminalised, election manipulation is, nevertheless, deliberate misinformation campaigns have been used to affect the outcome of a foreign election.
As recently as September 2025, the BBC released a story detailing the account of an undercover reporter who unveiled how a Russian-funded network attempted to disrupt the upcoming Moldovan elections. The report revealed that this network was paying participants to post pro-Russian propaganda and fake news undermining Moldova’s pro-EU ruling party just before the elections.
The undercover reporter was asked to post unfounded allegations – including that Moldova’s current government is planning to falsify the election results, Moldova’s potential EU membership is contingent on the country’s citizens changing their “sexual orientation” to LGBT, and that the President is facilitating child trafficking.
Although agnotology started as a way of unmasking deceitful marketing strategies aimed at obfuscating the truth from consumers, such as with the Tobacco industry, it has now become a political tool of democratic disruption. According to the BBC’s findings, the network funding pro-Russian propaganda is made up by at least 90 TikTok accounts – some masquerading as news outlets – which have posted thousands of videos totalling more than 23 million views and 860,000 likes since January.
According to Proctor, ignorance spreads when firstly, many people do not understand a concept or fact and secondly, when special interest groups – like a commercial firm or a political group – then work hard to create confusion about an issue. Despite being a useful term, “fake news” has been quickly co-opted by bad actors and those intent on sowing doubt. Through agnotology, it’s important to understand the reasons for doubting science or politicians and get to the root of the information.
In the words of Robert Proctor: «We live in a world of radical ignorance, and the marvel is that any kind of truth cuts through the noise. Even though knowledge is ‘accessible’, it does not mean it is accessed».
