It states that an asset or intelligence source is unreliable for one or several reasons, often fabrication, and must be officially disavowed.
[1] This is essentially a directive for the recipient to disregard or "burn" all information derived from that individual or group.
[2] The related term kill notice or kill notification is used by news and photo agencies to declare manipulated or faked documents as "not to be used".
[10][11] In March 2024, the term attracted considerable press commentary after news agencies issued kill notices on the Mother's day photograph of Catherine, Princess of Wales,[12][13] which was found to have been digitally altered.
[14][15] Phil Chetwynd, AFP's global news director, said that the kill notices issued on the photograph were more typical for photographs from the state news agencies of North Korea and Iran.