Misinformation can be harmful enough at the best of times, but during pandemics, it can be lethal. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder explores the kind of tactics used by professional trolls during tense situations, such as elections and pandemics.
The researchers focused on the infamous Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is at the heart of the Russian propaganda machine. The analysis found that fear and anger were the main emotions the agency intended to invoke in people.
“As consumers continue to see ads that contain false claims and are intentionally designed to use their emotions to manipulate them, it’s important for them to have cool heads and understand the motives behind them,” the researchers say.
Inside the troll factory
The researchers examined over 2,500 ads placed on Facebook and Instagram via the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence website after the agency made the ads publicly available after finding in 2018 that they had been created by the IRA to sow discord among the American people.
The researchers analyzed each of the adverts using a range of computational tools to dissect their language, target audience and intentions. They also explored how many clicks each ad got, and how much was paid for them.
In total, around $75,000 was spent on the ads, which collectively generated around 40.5 million impressions, and 3.7 million clickthroughs, which is a significantly higher clickthrough rate than for typical ads.
Subtle influence
The analysis found that adverts that used overtly racist language tended to flop, whereas those that used swear words and inflammatory language did very well. Equally, so too did ads that posed a potential threat.
For instance, one advert that targeted people with an interest in the Black Lives Matter movement said “”They killed an unarmed guy again! We MUST make the cops stop thinking that they are above the law!”, whereas those targeting white conservative groups might read “Take care of our vets; not illegals”. What was interesting is that very few of the ads would mention Donald Trump specifically.
“This wasn’t about electing one candidate or another,” the researchers explain. “It was essentially a make-Americans-hate-each-other campaign.”
Equally interesting is the relative lack of sophistication in the ad campaign, with many ads having spelling mistakes or poorly photoshopped images. With ads typically costing just a few cents to run, however, they generated an impressive return. It’s a trick that the researchers believe the IRA, and other groups like them, are still deploying during the COVID-19 crisis.
“I think with any major story, you are going to see this kind of disinformation circulated,” they explain. “There are bad actors out there who have goals that are counter to the aspirational goals of American democracy, and there are plenty of opportunities for them to take advantage of the current structure of social media.”
