C011 — Claim Definition¶


Research	R0052 — Methodology Claims
Run	2026-03-31
Claim	C011

Claim as Received¶

The Wardle and Derakhshan Information Disorder Taxonomy classifies information failure along two dimensions — falseness of content and intent to harm — producing three categories: misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.

Claim as Clarified¶

Claire Wardle and Hossein Derakhshan published an Information Disorder framework (2017, Council of Europe) that classifies problematic information along two dimensions: (1) falseness of content and (2) intent to harm. This produces three categories: misinformation (false, no intent to harm), disinformation (false, intent to harm), and malinformation (true, intent to harm).

BLUF¶

The claim is accurate. Wardle and Derakhshan's 2017 Council of Europe report defines the three categories along exactly these two dimensions. The framework is widely cited and adopted.

Scope¶

Domain: Information science / media studies
Timeframe: 2017-present
Testability: Directly verifiable against the 2017 Council of Europe report

Assessment Summary¶

Probability: Almost certain (95-99%)

Confidence: High

Hypothesis outcome: H1 supported — the two dimensions and three categories are confirmed by the original report and multiple secondary sources.

[Full assessment in assessment.md.]

Status¶

Field	Value
Date created	2026-03-31
Date completed	2026-03-31
Researcher profile	Phil Moore
Prompt version	ai-research-methodology v1 research.md
Revisit by	2027-03-31
Revisit trigger	Wardle or Derakhshan publish a revised taxonomy with different dimensions or categories