While difficult to counter, the German Marshall Fund, RAND, and military strategists have described techniques to respond to the firehose of falsehood, generally involving preempting it with good information, strategically reducing or removing misinformation, and teaching digital literacy.
The RAND Corporation coined the name "firehose of falsehood" in 2016, describing a technique it observed in Russian propaganda that combines a very large number of communications and disregard for the truth.
[9] Partially, it is distinguished from the older Soviet propaganda techniques used during the Cold War by the much larger quantity of messages and channels enabled by the advent of the internet and changes in how people consume news information.
According to research published in Frontiers in Political Science:[10] When leaders employ a firehose of falsehoods, citizens retreat into cynicism and the belief that the truth is fundamentally unknowable.
"[10] The immediate aim of the firehose of falsehood technique is to entertain, confuse, and overwhelm the audience and to create disinterest in or opposition to fact-checking and accurate reporting, so the propaganda may be delivered to the public more quickly than better sources.
[13] According to the author and former military intelligence officer John Loftus, Iran has been using similar methods to incite hatred against Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel.
She warns readers to expect an increase in the use of several related tactics: the lawsuit threat, the "fake news" denial, and the ad hominem attack.
[3][4][5][6][7] His use of the firehose technique during the June 27, 2024, debate broadcast by CNN was noted by analysts such as Heather Cox Richardson, who labeled Trump's performance as Gish Galloping,[8] and Dan Froomkin, who provided a similar analysis.
[21] In "How We Win the Competition for Influence" (2019), military strategists Wilson C. Blythe and Luke T. Calhoun stress the importance of consistent messaging.