No, the Chinese are not on the border of Maine — and the dangers of misinformation

Recent posts from a QAnon-backing Twitter handle with nearly 50,000 followers claimed that tens of thousands of Chinese troops had amassed along Maine’s border with Canada and that an F-16 fighter that crashed last week in Michigan was actually shot down — presumably by the Chinese.

(QAnon has, in recent years, become an increasingly dangerous conspiracy theory claiming, among other outlandish things, that President Donald Trump is fighting a horde of deep state pedophiles.)

While chatter about Chinese troops in Canada is steeped in fantasy, it is this kind of disinformation that presents a real threat, say a couple of experts in the information battlespace.

“This is in a sense information warfare,” Dave Lapan — a retired Marine colonel who served in several public affairs roles, including at the departments of defense and homeland security — told Military Times. “This is something we usually deal with from adversaries. And who knows? Some of this may be generated by our adversaries.”