Rumor Control and Crisis Response

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

This introductory article was written by ChatGPT at the direction of Heidi Burgess, who reviewed, edited, and approved the final content.
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June 21, 2026

Rumors are especially dangerous during crises because people are frightened, information is incomplete, and decisions often have to be made quickly. A false report about who caused a violent incident, whether help is available, or whether an area is safe can send people into danger or turn fear into anger. As our essay on rumor control explains, rumors can also intensify intergroup tensions, undermine negotiations, and make it much harder for officials or mediators to calm a situation. In such moments, accurate information is not a public-relations luxury. It is a form of crisis intervention.

Rumor control is not the same as simply denying false claims. It starts with listening. Responders need to know what people are hearing, what they are afraid of, and which information gaps are being filled by speculation. The World Health Organization calls this kind of work "infodemic management:" paying attention to the information environment so that harmful confusion does not interfere with good decisions. In practice, this means monitoring social media, community conversations, call-in lines, local news, and reports from trusted community members.

Once a rumor is identified, responders need a fast, but careful, way to investigate it. The goal is to determine what is true, what is false, and what is still unknown. The old Community Relations Service model described by mediators we talked to in our Civil Rights Mediation Oral History project used trusted intermediaries and community-based rumor-control teams to check stories with people who had direct access to the facts. In some communities, this included a centralized phone number where residents and reporters could ask whether a story was true. (Though we cannot get a direct link to these responses, interested readers can go to the search box on Civil Rights Mediation.org and enter "rumor control" to see what the respondents said.) Today, similar functions may be carried out through official websites, hotlines, text alerts, press briefings, or dedicated rumor-response pages such as FEMA's Common Disaster-Related Rumors page.

The correction phase has to be handled with discipline. Crisis communicators should be prompt, but they should not pretend to know more than they do. The CDC's Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication program emphasizes the importance of giving people lifesaving information in ways they can understand and use. Its CERC manual also stresses that people process information differently under stress. That is why rumor corrections should be clear, repeated through trusted channels, and paired with practical guidance about what people should do next.

Good rumor control also depends on relationships built before trouble starts. People are more likely to believe corrections from sources they already trust. They are also more likely to share accurate information when they feel that their questions are being taken seriously. CISA's Rumor Control Start-Up Guide makes this point in the election context, but the principle applies much more broadly. Crisis responders need pre-established communication networks, credible spokespeople, and community partners who can help information move faster than fear. When this is done well, rumor control does more than correct false stories. It reduces panic, protects vulnerable people, and helps keep conflict from escalating into preventable harm.

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This page was created by ChatGPT in response to this prompt. It was then reviewed, edited, supplemented and approved by Heidi Burgess. More information about how and why we are using AI in this way, and about the growing number of ways in which Beyond Intractability is using ChatGPT, Claude and other AI systems to generate content and build out the BI system, is available on our BI/AI Overview Page.