In the midst of the Covid pandemic, the World Health Organization famously declared that we were also in the midst of an “infodemic”, with misinformation spreading about the origins, the cause, the severity, and the control measures required to slow the spread of the virus. Indeed, this has continued with misinformation flooding the web about the various vaccines being rolled out.
As a recent report from the Oxford Internet Institute reminds us, however, this infodemic is not confined to Covid, and the use of social media to manipulate public opinion is a growing threat to democracy itself.
Indeed, the authors found organized social media manipulation campaigns in each and every one of the 81 countries they explored. It suggests that governments and political parties are producing misinformation on an enormous scale, with nearly all countries deploying misinformation as part of standard political communication.
Industrialized disinformation
“Our report shows misinformation has become more professionalised and is now produced on an industrial scale. Now, more than ever, the public needs to be able to rely on trustworthy information about government policy and activity,” the authors say. “Social media companies need to raise their game by increasing their efforts to flag misinformation and close fake accounts without the need for government intervention, so the public has access to high-quality information.”
The report warns that governments are increasingly spending huge sums on social media to drown out other voices, with citizen influencers used to spread misinformation and manipulated messages.
“Our 2020 report highlights the way in which government agencies, political parties, and private firms continue to use social media to spread political propaganda, polluting the digital information ecosystem and suppressing freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” the authors say. “A large part of this activity has become professionalised, with private firms offering disinformation-for-hire services.”
Key findings
Key findings the OII researchers identified include:
- Private ‘strategic communications’ firms are playing an increasing role in spreading computational propaganda, with researchers identifying state actors working with such firms in 48 countries.
- Almost $60 million has been spent on firms who use bots and other amplification strategies to create the impression of trending political messaging.
- Social media has become a major battleground, with firms such as Facebook and Twitter taking steps to combat ‘cyber troops’, with some $10 million has been spent on social media political advertisements. The platforms removed more than 317,000 accounts and pages from ‘cyber troops’ actors between January 2019 and November 2020.
Indeed, in 61 countries there was evidence found that politicians and political parties were using forms of computational propaganda as part of their campaigns. The authors urge electoral authorities to consider this crucial landscape, but they seem largely powerless to do anything about it.
