It’s not easy to spot disinformation on Twitter. Here’s what we learned from 8 political ‘astroturfing’ campaigns.

  • David Schoch

Press/Media: Research

Description

Facebook recently announced it had dismantled a number of alleged disinformation campaigns, including Russian troll accounts targeting Democratic presidential candidates. Over the summer, Twitter and Facebook suspended thousands of accounts they alleged to be spreading Chinese disinformation about Hong Kong protesters.

Disinformation campaigns based in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates used fake accounts on several platforms this year to support authoritarian regimes across nearly a dozen Middle East and African countries. And the Mueller report describes in detail how Russian trolls impersonated right-wing agitators and Black Lives Matter activists to sow discord in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

How can you distinguish real netizens from participants in a hidden influence campaign on Twitter? It’s not easy.

Period28 Oct 2019

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