{ "model": { "rank": 1462, "code": "thing-q7281", "model_id": "vr.tr.propaganda", "name": "propaganda", "purpose": "Let an agent explain propaganda neutrally, help people recognise persuasion and manipulation techniques, and attribute characterisations of specific material to sources rather than labelling actors itself.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q7281/", "tier": 2, "score": 145, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "negative campaigning", "canvassing", "claim monetiforme", "Aixafem el feixisme", "cross-Strait propaganda", "Balloon campaigns in Korea", "propaganda of success", "war propaganda", "privacy washing", "Community of Interest Letter", "AI washing", "propaganda against other country", "computational propaganda", "propaganda in World War I", "slopaganda", "Propaganda in Ukraine", "Fidesz propaganda", "allegation of homosexuality", "atrocity propaganda", "state-sponsored Internet propaganda", "propaganda of the deed", "White slave propaganda", "space propaganda", "disinformation", "propaganda in Russia", "political slogan", "liberpunk", "corporate propaganda", "propaganda in the Soviet Union", "Zhonghua minzu", "openwashing", "antisemitic trope", "Hasbara", "homophobic propaganda", "propaganda through media", "grey propaganda", "propaganda in the United States", "anti-religious propaganda", "false flag", "communist propaganda" ], "aliasCount": 82, "merged": 82, "knownIn": 145, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q7281", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7281", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T12:04:03Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q7281", "registryId": "vr.tr.propaganda", "name": "propaganda", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q7281/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.propaganda", "name": "propaganda", "purpose": "Let an agent explain propaganda neutrally, help people recognise persuasion and manipulation techniques, and attribute characterisations of specific material to sources rather than labelling actors itself.", "definition": "Communication used to influence the attitudes or actions of an audience, often by selectively presenting facts, appealing to emotion or using misleading claims, produced by states, parties, movements or other organisations.", "what_it_is_for": "A topic in media literacy, history and political communication.", "affordances": [ "recognise common propaganda techniques", "check claims against independent sources", "study historical propaganda with scholarly context", "distinguish propaganda from other persuasion" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Aims to shape attitudes or actions", "Often one-sided", "Can be true, misleading or false", "Label is itself contested" ], "appearance": "Posters, broadcasts, social media posts, films, leaflets and speeches.", "visual_identification": [ "Emotional appeals and simple slogans", "Selective or false claims", "Advertising and public information campaigns overlap but differ" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "state propaganda", "wartime propaganda", "political campaign messaging", "computational propaganda", "counter-propaganda" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "communication", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "disinformation", "why": "related concept" }, { "relation": "is countered by", "target": "media literacy", "why": "response" }, { "relation": "overlaps", "target": "advertising", "why": "related practice" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 20", "Electoral advertising rules", "EU Digital Services Act risk rules" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Agents labelling contested material as propaganda without attribution", "Amplifying harmful messaging", "False balance" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "techniques", "name": "Techniques", "description": "Recognising.", "rationale": "Techniques can be learned.", "layers": [ { "id": "methods", "name": "Methods", "description": "Common techniques.", "findings": [ { "id": "methods-finding", "name": "Methods", "description": "Techniques.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which persuasion techniques, such as name-calling or bandwagon appeals, appear here?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which media literacy resources explain them?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "claims", "name": "Claims", "description": "Checking.", "findings": [ { "id": "claims-finding", "name": "Claims", "description": "Checking claims.", "questions": [ { "text": "Can the key claims be verified in independent sources?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Have fact-checkers assessed them?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "attribution", "name": "Attribution", "description": "Neutral handling.", "rationale": "Labels are contested.", "layers": [ { "id": "label", "name": "Label", "description": "Who calls it propaganda.", "findings": [ { "id": "label-finding", "name": "Label", "description": "Attribution of labels.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who characterises this material as propaganda, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Do others dispute the characterisation?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "balance", "name": "Balance", "description": "Avoiding false balance.", "findings": [ { "id": "balance-finding", "name": "Balance", "description": "Balance.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is established evidence presented without false balance?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are views attributed rather than asserted?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "Past campaigns.", "rationale": "History teaches.", "layers": [ { "id": "examples", "name": "Examples", "description": "Historic cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "examples-finding", "name": "Examples", "description": "Historic cases.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do historians describe this propaganda campaign?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which archives hold examples?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Harmful content.", "findings": [ { "id": "context-finding", "name": "Context", "description": "Harmful content.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is hateful historical material shown only with scholarly context?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Is its reproduction necessary?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Agent conduct.", "rationale": "Agents should not produce it.", "layers": [ { "id": "production", "name": "Production", "description": "No manipulation.", "findings": [ { "id": "production-finding", "name": "Production", "description": "Production limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the request seek deceptive content or coordinated inauthentic campaigns?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent decline?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "reporting", "name": "Reporting", "description": "Platforms.", "findings": [ { "id": "reporting-finding", "name": "Reporting", "description": "Reporting.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can coordinated disinformation be reported to a platform?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which rules apply?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should historical campaigns be separate entries?", "How should characterisations be attributed?", "How should fact-checks be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a propaganda, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain propaganda neutrally, help people recognise persuasion and manipulation techniques, and attribute characterisations of specific material to sources rather than labelling actors itself.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: negative campaigning, canvassing, claim monetiforme, Aixafem el feixisme, cross-Strait propaganda, Balloon campaigns in Korea, propaganda of success, war propaganda, privacy washing, Community of Interest Letter, AI washing, propaganda against other country.", "82 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 145 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a propaganda, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "negative campaigning", "canvassing", "claim monetiforme", "Aixafem el feixisme", "cross-Strait propaganda", "Balloon campaigns in Korea", "propaganda of success", "war propaganda", "privacy washing", "Community of Interest Letter", "AI washing", "propaganda against other country" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 145 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 82 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one propaganda from another, and a propaganda from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a propaganda sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a propaganda from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a propaganda passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a propaganda between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a propaganda, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a propaganda is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a propaganda proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a propaganda, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a propaganda and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a propaganda consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a propaganda takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What propaganda is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of propaganda are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is propaganda operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of propaganda and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of propaganda?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as propaganda?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a propaganda came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a propaganda and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a propaganda is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a propaganda, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a propaganda, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a propaganda is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }