Social media manipulation rising globally: Report

Automated bot accounts still continue to be a well-used tactic. Online commentators and fake accounts are used to spread pro-party messages, as well as being used to strategically share content or post using keywords to game algorithms and get certain content trending. They are also being used to report legitimate content and accounts on a mass scale, causing them to be taken down temporarily. “We suspect new innovation will continue to emerge as platforms and governments take legal and regulatory steps to curb this type of activity,” says Howard.

Overall, the use of organized social media manipulation campaigns is a big business. “We estimate that tens of millions of dollars are spent on this type of activity,’ says Howard. ‘Some of the money may be spent on legitimate advertising on social media, but there is certainly a growing industry for fake accounts, online commentators, and political bots.”

— Read more in Samantha Bradshaw and Philip N. Howard, Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation (Computational Propaganda Research Project, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, July 2018)