This response playbook informs and guides policies and practices to counter disinformation and strengthen democracy at a local level. 

The playbook argues that city officials are well positioned to respond to and correct disinformation yet research, analysis, and policymaking on the subject have largely remained at the national and international levels, with current knowledge not readily accessible and translatable for urban governance needs.

The playbook covers the ways cities can:

• build trust by displaying competence, consistency, and transparency, and strategically engaging with trusted institutions, people, and information sources.
• build community by understanding and addressing fault lines and creating a shared vision to strengthen social cohesion and build collective civic identities. 
• communicate and listen by establishing robust and trusted information-sharing networks.

It also provides a framework for collaboration across:

• cities – encouraging innovation, exchange, and shared learning and allowing for collective impact and advocacy with large private corporations and other levels of government.
• sectors – enabling cities to benefit from the different types of expertise, skills, and capacities of other key stakeholders in their local communities.
• levels of government – allowing cities to benefit from and inform specialized staff expertise and existing disinformation response tools at the state, national, and supranational levels.

The playbook also includes principles for city administrations to apply in designing their policies and processes so that their disinformation response is focused on agility, preparedness, and the well-being of staff and the community.