Why Facebook is the tool of choice for government manipulation
The Global Disinformation Order, a new study by the Oxford Internet
Institute, confirms our worst fears about governments’ use of social
media to influence their people.
“Evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns have taken
place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in
2017,” the study reads. “In each country, there is at least one
political party or government agency using social media to shape public
attitudes domestically.”
Social media has been effectively co-opted by authoritarian regimes in
26 countries, it says. “Cyber troops,” in the form of bots or groups of
trolls, are one of an increasing number of tools used to promote
specific narratives, suppress human rights, and publicly smear political
opponents.
And these operations aren’t just limited to domestic audiences. The
report found that seven countries—Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Pakistan,
China, Russia, and Venezuela—have actively tried to use computational
elements of social media algorithms (virality, hashtags, and incessant
squawking) to promote disinformation on a global scale as well.
And Facebook dominates in this sphere. “Despite there being more social
networking platforms than ever, Facebook remains the platform of choice
for social media manipulation,” the report reads.
The most common methods of influencing opinion lie in these broad categories:
Creation of disinformation or manipulated media
Mass reporting of content or accounts
Data-driven strategies
Trolling, doxing, or harassment
Amplifying content and media online
Facebook users are vulnerable targets
I’m not proud of the fact that I can’t get myself to stop using Facebook
and other social platforms. But the justification I give myself is that
I almost exclusively follow trusted, legitimate publications, including
lots of regional and niche ones, and I rely on social media to serve as
a content engine of sorts.
While I’m experienced enough to be able to understand the difference
between a credible site and bot accounts enthusiastically pumping out
fake news, lots of users new to the internet are not.
In Nigeria, Indonesia, and India, for instance, many netizens
think Facebook is the internet. This suggests that they rely heavily, if
not exclusively, on Facebook as a source of news, communication with
friends and family, games, and other forms of content consumption.
It’s no wonder then that people trust whatever’s shared on social media.
Given how Facebook, historically, has done little to nothing to prevent
disinformation means we live in times where the truth can be easily
manipulated.
What are social media companies doing about fake news?
To be sure, social media companies have taken some action to combat
troll armies. In April, it published a statement detailing how it
removed “coordinated inauthentic behavior and spam from India and
Pakistan.”
In the past few months, Twitter has removed thousands of accounts from
Egypt, the U.A.E., China, Spain, and Ecuador for amplifying messaging
from governments or political parties.
Broad measures Facebook has announced include lessening News Feed
exposure of posts by groups that repeatedly provide misinformation and
posts from low-quality publications. It has also beefed up its
fact-checking program and introduced indicators in Messenger to help
users assess the reliability of the information they receive.
And as Buzzfeed News wrote in 2017, WhatsApp is “the primary vector for
the spread of misinformation” in India. The messaging app’s role in the
fake news crisis has been extensively scrutinized and this year the
company announced it was limiting forwarding to five times per message.
Be very afraid
Those of us sitting in the West may not think much of the Oxford
Internet Institute study. Propaganda has existed for centuries after
all, and there will always be rumors and misinformation flying around.
While in the past this may have been the work of court whisperers, some
might argue that it’s just the tools that have changed in modern times.
But that’s the equivalent of burying your head in the sand. Propaganda
campaigns organized solely on social media have contributed to genocide.
Digital activists have been targeted by troll armies, abducted, and
tortured.
The internet can’t be hijacked by the vested interests of a few. Given
the present circumstances, its future as a means for open communication
and knowledge sharing is under serious threat. Unless we do something to
take back control, it may not serve humanity the way its original
founders had envisioned.
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