Reaching the public with essential and correct information about risks and during disasters has become more complex given the immense flows of information that characterizes the digital and globalized society of today. In this context, disinformation is pronounced as one of the major challenges and has additionally been named a threat to democracy. However, the occurrence and dispersion of disinformation is in fact a common phenomenon during as well disasters and societal crises as during peaceful times. We therefore argue that the dispersion of disinformation can be viewed both as a risk and as a crisis in itself, and in this presentation, we aim to provide knowledge about the understandings and experiences of disinformation amongst people in Sweden. Departing from a bottom-up perspective we draw on material from qualitative individual and focus group interviews to capture the width of understandings and experiences of disinformation. We analyze the results using the framework of communication-related vulnerability showing that situational, individual and socio-structural factors affect the ways in which disinformation is understood, experienced and how people respond. The results indicate that there are differences in how people understand and express their ability to cope with disinformation depending on their age, background and experiences. Furthermore, we conclude that situational factors such as crises and critical events can make people more vulnerable to disinformation.