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Managing the impact of internal failures, from mishandling political crises to executive misconduct, has always been difficult for major corporations. But protecting your reputation becomes increasingly difficult.
It was difficult enough when a corporate crisis was tied to real events and decisions. Now, with online deception changing and proliferating more rapidly than ever before, falsehoods and disinformation can derail businesses. Using artificial intelligence to more easily create fake materials such as deepfake videos only increases the risks.
Governments have long complained that disinformation undermines elections, stokes unrest and deepens social divisions. Now, businesses are also in the crosshairs. “Disinformation has been on the rise in recent years and is now spreading like Japanese knotweed,” said Julian Payne, global chairman of crisis and risk at consultancy Edelman.
Arla Foods, owner of Britain’s largest dairy co-operative, has had a tough time. Some customers recently promoted a boycott of dairy products after the company announced a trial of a feed additive aimed at reducing methane emissions from dairy cows. A social media storm ensued, featuring bizarre and unsubstantiated claims that the additive causes infertility problems and is part of a conspiracy to reduce the world’s population, as well as conspiracy theories linking the additive to Bill Gates. . British regulators have approved the additive Bobal as safe, but its manufacturer blamed the frenzy on “misinformation and misinformation.”
In another example from a few years ago, US retailer Wayfair made highly false claims that children were hidden in cabinets with “girls’ names on them” as part of a child trafficking ring. It became the target of a campaign to make the case.
An Edelman survey of nearly 400 top communications and marketing executives found that 8 in 10 are concerned about the impact of misinformation on their business. Less than half of people feel prepared to take on these risks.
And it’s not just through outright disinformation. Deliberately spreading falsehoods to deceive. Companies should also be wary of accidental misinformation or misinformation that exaggerates the truth or changes content to cause harm. Threats come in many forms, including fabricated news, fake social media accounts, and fake text, audio, and video content. Online superspreaders often leverage AI to power these attacks, allowing misinformation to spread unpredictably. After all, lies spread faster than truth.
Boycotts can be financially damaging, but the reputational damage can be just as significant. Employee safety is also an issue. In 2020, an unsubstantiated 5G conspiracy linking the new mobile phone technology to health risks led to an attack on communications engineers working for BT Openreach in the UK.
Hate-spouting internet warriors are nothing new, but the speed at which generative AI is now being used to create both fake messages and the accounts behind them means that companies are now trying to protect themselves. Payne said this means there is a need to “increase the capacity of Companies went from taking one day to “keep going” to four hours, he added. “It’s like taking a water gun to a raging inferno.”
As with cybersecurity, boards seem slow to embrace disinformation as a priority. “We’re seeing similar trends,” said one executive who helps companies track such campaigns. Those at the top are “often ignorant of the polarizing dynamics of conversations in the digital world.”
So what should companies do? Bosses should consider whether their company’s policies on geopolitics, climate change, and other issues are likely to be targeted. Testing your crisis response by identifying so-called “tripwires” can highlight weaknesses.
Instinctively, it makes sense to immediately call out falsehoods after an attack, but this can amplify fabricated messages and push them out of the obscure corners of the internet and into the public sphere.
Jack Stubbs, chief information officer at Graphica, which specializes in understanding online communities, said mapping and tracking sources of disinformation needs to become a strategic imperative. “Your operating environment is this online information space,” he said.
Equally important is building credibility up front. If management repeatedly lies to shareholders and the public, it will only undermine the crisis response. The hope is that if you are consistent and transparent, you will be more likely to be believed when it matters most. In a digital world where false narratives spread faster than ever, businesses can no longer rely on outdated strategies.
anjli.raval@ft.com
