Even as most people have grown more accustomed to spotting fake news and questioning what they see online, new technologies and older tactics familiar from Cold War psyops have created a more vexing problem. Can our shared information ecosystem survive the rise of the “rep-op”?
TORONTO—Attacks on one’s reputation used to be the price that celebrities paid for fame. But now it is a hazard of ordinary life. Anyone with any standing to lose is vulnerable. If you have an online presence, the damage can spread much further and faster than the truth. Run-of-the-mill bad publicity or harassment might dent your confidence or cause annoyance, but if you become the target of a technologically augmented campaign aimed at destroying your reputation, you could lose much more.