Organised Social Media Manipulation
Propaganda has always been part of political discourse going back through publishing history and was one of the main reasons why governments allowed newspapers to operate in their country. But now, with the expansion and subtle manipulation of information, fake-news and propaganda, this data misuse has significantly increased and is raising public concern.
A new Report written by the Oxford University’s Internet Institute called The Global Disinformation Order has recently been published.
This excellent Report goes into depth about the increasing global data and information propaganda that is taking place but governments across the globe.The use of computational propaganda to shape public attitudes via social media has become mainstream, extending far beyond the actions of a few bad actors.
In an information environment characterised by high volumes of information and limited levels of user attention and trust, the tools and techniques of computational propaganda are becoming a common and arguably an essential part of digital campaigning and public diplomacy.
While many countries have seen an increase in computational propaganda on social media, attribution back to a particular actor remains difficult.
One important feature of the organisation of manipulation campaigns is that cyber troops often work in conjunction with private industry, civil society organisations, Internet sub-cultures, youth groups, hacker collectives, fringe movements, social media influencers, and volunteers who ideologically support their cause.
The distinction between these groups can often be difficult to draw, especially since activities can be implicitly and explicitly sanctioned by the state. Evidence of organised social media manipulation campaigns which have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017.
In each country, there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to shape public attitudes domestically.
Social media has become co-opted by many authoritarian regimes. In 26 countries, computational propaganda is being used as a tool of information control in three distinct ways: to suppress fundamental human rights, discredit political opponents, and drown out dissenting opinions.
A handful of sophisticated state actors use computational propaganda for foreign influence operations. Facebook and Twitter attributed foreign influence operations to seven countries (China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela) who have used these platforms to influence global audiences.
Facebook remains the platform of choice for social media manipulation. In 56 countries, the Oxford researchers found evidence of formally organised computational propaganda campaigns on Facebook.
China has become a major player in the global disinformation order. Until the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, most evidence of Chinese computational propaganda occurred on domestic platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, and QQ. But China’s new-found interest in aggressively using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube should raise concerns for democracies.
Computational propaganda has become a normal part of the digital public sphere. These techniques will also continue to evolve as new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, or the Internet of Things, are poised to fundamentally reshape society and politics.
But since computational propaganda is a symptom of long-standing challenges to democracy, it is important that solutions take into consideration these systemic challenges.
It must also consider the role social media platforms have played in shaping the current information environment. A strong democracy requires access to high-quality information and an ability for citizens to come together to debate, discuss, deliberate, empathise, and make concessions.
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