Misinformation is undoubtedly hugely prevalent, but perhaps the true scale of coordinated attempts by actors to manipulate the public discourse were not fully known. Until, that is, a new report from Oxford University lifts the lid on the number of countries that have suffered such social media based manipulation campaigns.
The report reveals that 70 countries have suffered from deliberate misinformation campaigns in 2019, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 in 2017. It goes on to say that social media has become an especially potent tool for authoritarian regimes to pump out propaganda to the masses.
“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,” the authors say.
By far the most advanced protagonists are China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, each of whom utilize Facebook and Twitter to produce computational propaganda to influence foreign actors. China leads the way, but until recently most of their efforts were confined to domestic platforms such as WeChat, QQ and Weibo. They have shown a growing willingness to use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to aggressively push their message however.
This focus on Facebook should come as little surprise, as the authors reveal that the platform is the focal point of most misinformation campaigns, with evidence emerging in 56 different countries of formally organized computational propaganda campaigns on the platform.
“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,” the authors conclude. “But since computational propaganda is a symptom of long-standing challenges to democracy, it is important that solutions take into consideration these systemic challenges.”
