Use of social media to manipulate public opinion now a global problem, says new report
The report explores the tools, capacities, strategies and resources employed by global ‘cyber troops’, typically government agencies and political parties, to influence public opinion in 70 countries.
Key findings include:
- Organized social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017, with 70 countries using computational propaganda to manipulate public opinion.
- In 45 democracies, politicians and political parties have used computational propaganda tools by amassing fake followers or spreading manipulated media to garner voter support.
- In 26 authoritarian states, government entities have used computational propaganda as a tool of information control to suppress public opinion and press freedom, discredit criticism and oppositional voices, and drown out political dissent.
- Foreign influence operations, primarily over Facebook and Twitter, have been attributed to cyber troop activities in seven countries: China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
- China has now emerged as a major player in the global disinformation order, using social media platforms to target international audiences with disinformation.
- 25 countries are working with private companies or strategic communications firms offering a computational propaganda as a service.
- Facebook remains the platform of choice for social media manipulation, with evidence of formally organised campaigns taking place in 56 countries.
Read the rest of a truly informative useful summary.
Phi Beta Iota: This report covers external manipulation. The other and more troubling form of manipulation is internal, as orchestrated by the Zionist-controlled owners and managers of the elements of #GoogleGestapo (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, et al). Professor Robert Epstein is the leading researcher on the specifics of Google survey manipulation to sway tens of millions of voters. We discount the criticism of his work and believe he has done something very important.
In July 2019, Epstein presented his research to the Senate Judiciary Committee, claiming that Google could manipulate “upwards of 15 million votes” in 2020 and recommending that Google's search index be made public. In a clarification to a question asked by Ted Cruz he also said that “2.6 million is a rock bottom minimum” for how many votes Google might have swung towards Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, and that “the range is between 2.6 million and up to 10.4 million votes”.[22][23]
For more information or to request an interview, please contact Sara Spinks on 01865 287237 or email press@oii.ox.ac.uk .
Notes for editors
Computational Propaganda project research studies are published at https://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/publications/
