tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/social-media-and-democracy-43556/articlesSocial media and democracy – La Conversation2024-03-28T05:59:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267562024-03-28T05:59:11Z2024-03-28T05:59:11ZInstagram and Threads are limiting political content. This is terrible for democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584705/original/file-20240327-24-b0sz75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=556%2C440%2C4940%2C3476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/neon-signage-xv7-GlvBLFw">Prateek Katyal/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Meta’s Instagram and Threads apps are “slowly” rolling out a change that will <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads">no longer recommend political content</a> by default. The company defines political content broadly as being “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics”.</p>
<p>Users who follow accounts that post political content will still see such content in the normal, algorithmically sorted ways. But by default, users will not see any political content in their feeds, stories or other places where <em>new</em> content is recommended to them. </p>
<p>For users who want political recommendations to remain, Instagram has a new setting where users can turn it back on, making this an “opt-in” feature.</p>
<p>This change not only signals Meta’s retreat from politics and news more broadly, but also challenges any sense of these platforms being good for democracy at all. It’s also likely to have a chilling effect, stopping content creators from engaging politically altogether.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-curry-nights-to-coal-kills-dresses-how-social-media-drives-politicians-to-behave-like-influencers-190246">From curry nights to ‘coal kills’ dresses: how social media drives politicians to behave like influencers</a>
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<h2>Politics: dislike</h2>
<p>Meta has long had a problem with politics, but that wasn’t always the case.</p>
<p>In 2008 and 2012, political campaigning <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19331681.2016.1163519">embraced social media</a>, and Facebook was seen as especially important in Barack Obama’s success. The Arab Spring was painted as a social-media-led “Facebook Revolution”, although Facebook’s role in these events was <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2012/11/28/role-social-media-arab-uprisings/">widely overstated</a>, </p>
<p>However, since then the spectre of political manipulation in the wake of the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal has soured social media users toward politics on platforms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cambridge-analytica-scandal-facebooks-user-engagement-and-trust-decline-93814">Cambridge Analytica scandal: Facebook's user engagement and trust decline</a>
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<p>Increasingly polarised politics, vastly increased mis- and disinformation online, and Donald Trump’s preference for social media over policy, or truth, have all taken a toll. In that context, Meta has already been reducing <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/reducing-political-content-in-news-feed/">political content recommendations</a> on their main Facebook platform since 2021. </p>
<p>Instagram and Threads hadn’t been limited in the same way, but also ran into problems. Most recently, the Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-systemic-censorship-palestine-content">accused Instagram</a> in December last year of systematically censoring pro-Palestinian content. With the new content recommendation change, Meta’s response to that accusation today would likely be that it is applying its political content policies consistently.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person holding a smartphone displaying an instagram profile at a high angle against a city backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584952/original/file-20240328-30-jfkoff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Instagram has no shortage of political content from advocacy and media organisations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/high-angle-photo-of-person-holding-turned-on-smartphone-with-tall-buildings-background-WUmb_eBrpjs">Jakob Owens/Unsplash</a></span>
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<h2>How the change will play out in Australia</h2>
<p>Notably, many Australians, especially in younger age groups, <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/media/newsroom/2023/june/digital-news-report-australia-2023-tiktok-and-instagram-increase-in-popularity-for-news-consumption,-but-australians-dont-trust-algorithms">find news on Instagram</a> and other social media platforms. Sometimes they are specifically seeking out news, but often not. </p>
<p>Not all news is political. But now, on Instagram by default no news recommendations will be political. The serendipity of discovering political stories that motivate people to think or act will be lost.</p>
<p>Combined with Meta <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/01/facebook-news-tab-shut-down-end-australia-journalism-funding-deals">recently stating</a> they will no longer pay to support the Australian news and journalism shared on their platforms, it’s fair to say Meta is seeking to be as apolitical as possible.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-will-metas-refusal-to-pay-for-news-affect-australian-journalism-and-our-democracy-224872">How will Meta's refusal to pay for news affect Australian journalism – and our democracy?</a>
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<h2>The social media landscape is fracturing</h2>
<p>With Elon Musk’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-elon-musk-is-obsessed-with-casting-x-as-the-most-authentic-social-media-platform-210956">disastrous Twitter rebranding to X</a>, and TikTok <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-tiktok-is-banned-in-the-us-or-australia-how-might-the-company-or-china-respond-225889">facing the possibility of being banned</a> altogether in the United States, Meta appears as the most stable of the big social media giants.</p>
<p>But with Meta positioning Threads as a potential new town square while Twitter/X burns down, it’s hard to see what a town square looks like without politics. </p>
<p>The lack of political news, combined with a lack of any news on Facebook, may well mean young people see even less news than before, and have less chance to engage politically. </p>
<p>In a Threads discussion, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri made the <a href="https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/CuZ6opKtHva">platform’s position clear</a>:</p>
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<p>Politics and hard news are important, I don’t want to imply otherwise. But my take is, from a platform’s perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.</p>
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<p>Like for Facebook, for Instagram and Threads politics is just too hard. The political process and democracy can be pretty hard, but it’s now clear that’s not Meta’s problem.</p>
<h2>A chilling effect on creators</h2>
<p>Instagram’s <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads">announcement</a> also reminded content creators their accounts may no longer be recommended due to posting political content.</p>
<p>If political posts were preventing recommendation, creators could see the exact posts and choose to remove them. Content creators <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300264753/not-getting-paid-to-do-what-you-love/">live or die by the platform’s recommendations</a>, so the implication is clear: avoid politics. </p>
<p>Creators already spend considerable time trying to interpret what content platforms prefer, building <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819854731">algorithmic</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221077174">folklore</a> about which posts do best.</p>
<p>While that folklore is sometimes flawed, Meta couldn’t be clearer on this one: political posts will prevent audience growth, and thus make an already precarious living harder. That’s the definition of a political chilling effect.</p>
<p>For the audiences who turn to creators because they are <a href="https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/26365/ada08-commu-abi-2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">perceived to be relatable and authentic</a>, the absence of political posts or positions will likely stifle political issues, discussion and thus ultimately democracy. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/C41CueKvYaF/?hl=en\u0026img_index=3","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>How do I opt back in?</h2>
<p>For Instagram and Threads users who want these platforms to still share political content recommendations, follow these steps:</p>
<ul>
<li>go to your Instagram profile and click the three lines to access your settings.</li>
<li>click on Suggested Content (or Content Preferences for some).</li>
<li>click on Political content, and then select “Don’t limit political content from people that you don’t follow”.</li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/social-media-apps-have-billions-of-active-users-but-what-does-that-really-mean-226021">Social media apps have billions of 'active users'. But what does that really mean?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tama Leaver receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.</span></em></p>A new change to Meta’s apps will see users no longer recommended political content by default. The ramifications of this will be far-reaching.Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1965502022-12-21T13:40:38Z2022-12-21T13:40:38ZTwitter in 2022: 5 essential reads about the consequences of Elon Musk’s takeover of the microblogging platform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502269/original/file-20221220-16-n138xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6048%2C4010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's safe to say that Elon Musk has transformed Twitter.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/twitter-verified-icon-seen-on-mobile-screen-with-elon-musk-news-photo/1245545223">Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You would be forgiven for growing numb to the almost daily assault of headlines proclaiming the latest stunning development involving Elon Musk’s tenure as owner and manager of Twitter. The microblogging platform has seen a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-hate-speech.html">rise in hate speech</a> and technical problems as media reports say <a href="https://www.engadget.com/twitter-has-reportedly-laid-off-more-of-its-infrastructure-team-192330953.html">up to 75% of the staff has been cut</a> since he took over.</p>
<p>In December 2022, unsettling news about Twitter included the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-twitter-disbands-trust-and-safety-council-11670898329">disbanding of the company’s Trust and Safety Council</a>, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142666067/elon-musk-is-using-the-twitter-files-to-discredit-foes-and-push-conspiracy-theor">conspiracy theories and score settling of the “Twitter Files</a>,” QAnon’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/14/qanon-musk-revival-twitter/">Musk-inspired revival</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/16/business/elon-musk-twitter-suspensions.html">suspension of the Twitter accounts</a> of journalists covering the company, and <a href="https://www.engadget.com/twitter-bans-free-promotion-of-competing-platforms-182712974.html">a brief ban on links</a> to rival social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon.</p>
<p>Beneath these headlines lie crucial questions about the nature, role and state of social media in society. Prompted by Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, The Conversation published several articles exploring these issues. These articles from our archive look at the effects of content management, the dangers of COVID-19 misinformation, Twitter’s underappreciated nature as a data source, Black Twitter’s vital role in social justice movements, and the difficulties of starting over in a post-Twitter world.</p>
<h2>1. Free speech, bias and manipulation</h2>
<p>Among Musk’s stated motivations for buying Twitter was to address his claim that the platform was <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519363666377908225">biased against figures on the right</a>. Musk did not offer any data to support this. </p>
<p>Twitter’s own researchers, who had access to data not available outside the company, found that the opposite is the case – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2025334119">the platform is biased in favor of right-leaning voices</a>.</p>
<p>Musk said at the time he made his bid for the company that he intended to make Twitter a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/14/elon-musk-twitter/">platform for free speech</a>, and that free speech on Twitter was being stifled by excessive content moderation.</p>
<p>Again, research shows that <a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-is-wrong-research-shows-content-rules-on-twitter-help-preserve-free-speech-from-bots-and-other-manipulation-182317">the opposite is the case</a>. To the extent that Twitter is an arena for free speech, it is an arena that is readily manipulated. “Astroturf” causes, trolling and misinformation are facilitated by bots and malicious users that appear to be the digital equivalent of crowds gathering around fabricated outrage.</p>
<p>Indiana University social media researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=f_kGJwkAAAAJ&hl=en">Filippo Menczer</a> has found that this manipulation has become sophisticated, with coordinated networks of users and bots manipulating Twitter’s algorithms to artificially increase or decrease the popularity of content. Twitter has attempted to rein in this abuse in recent years through content moderation, and weakening these moderation policies “may make abuse rampant again,” he wrote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-is-wrong-research-shows-content-rules-on-twitter-help-preserve-free-speech-from-bots-and-other-manipulation-182317">Elon Musk is wrong: Research shows content rules on Twitter help preserve free speech from bots and other manipulation</a>
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<h2>2. Medical misinformation unbound</h2>
<p>In November 2022, Twitter quietly posted notice that it would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/29/twitter-covid-misinformation-policy/">no longer enforce its policy</a> against COVID-19 misinformation. Fighting medical misinformation on social media has been an uphill battle, and the outcome has life-and-death consequences.</p>
<p>Michigan State University social media researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JpFHYKcAAAAJ&hl=en">Anjana Susarla</a> noted that social media <a href="https://theconversation.com/twitter-lifted-its-ban-on-covid-misinformation-research-shows-this-is-a-grave-risk-to-public-health-195695">facilitates the spread of misinformation</a> and amplifies content that’s likely to trigger heightened emotions. There’s considerable evidence that misinformation on social media reduces vaccine uptake and is making it more difficult for society to reach herd immunity, she wrote.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gE9dFM4Bs0k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Twitter’s rollback of its ban on COVID-19 misinformation is a threat to public health.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Another issue is that what happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter. Anti-vaccine content and medical misinformation generally “can spill over into other online platforms,” hampering those platforms’ efforts to combat misinformation, Susarla wrote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/twitter-lifted-its-ban-on-covid-misinformation-research-shows-this-is-a-grave-risk-to-public-health-195695">Twitter lifted its ban on COVID misinformation – research shows this is a grave risk to public health</a>
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<h2>3. Diamonds in the mud</h2>
<p>As Twitter devolves and degrades, there is a possibility that the platform, at least in pre-Musk form, could disappear. While few are likely to lament the loss of a playground for trolls and a breeding ground for misinformation, Susarla <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-world-would-lose-with-the-demise-of-twitter-valuable-eyewitness-accounts-and-raw-data-on-human-behavior-as-well-as-a-habitat-for-trolls-194601">spelled out</a> some of the unique and valuable services Twitter has provided.</p>
<p>Every public tweet is archived and accessible, which makes for a treasure trove of data about collective human behavior. This data is very valuable for researchers and policymakers, she wrote. For example, public health researchers have found associations between tweeting about HIV and incidence of HIV, and with geotagged tweets researchers are able to assess the health of people in particular neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Twitter has also been a vital arena for crowdsourcing, Susarla noted. For example, during natural disasters and other emergencies, Twitter “has been a great venue for crowdsourced eyewitness data,” she wrote. And Twitter has been invaluable in the field of open-source intelligence (OSINT), “particularly for tracking down war crimes.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-world-would-lose-with-the-demise-of-twitter-valuable-eyewitness-accounts-and-raw-data-on-human-behavior-as-well-as-a-habitat-for-trolls-194601">What the world would lose with the demise of Twitter: Valuable eyewitness accounts and raw data on human behavior, as well as a habitat for trolls</a>
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<h2>4. Black Twitter</h2>
<p>Twitter has also been invaluable as a venue for crowdsourcing about another type of threat: police brutality, particularly against Black people. In 2018, <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2018/nielsen-examines-the-digital-habits-and-impact-of-black-consumers/">28% of Twitter’s users in the U.S. were Black</a>, and about 1 in 5 Black Americans were on Twitter, according to Nielsen.</p>
<p>This digital community in Twitter, dubbed Black Twitter, circulates topics, stories and images that directly relate to and affect the Black community, noted Emerson College communications scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4hVozz3TroMC&hl=en&oi=ao">Deion Scott Hawkins</a>. In particular, Twitter is <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-twitters-expected-demise-would-make-it-harder-to-publicize-police-brutality-and-discuss-racism-195146">often used to document and upload videos of police brutality</a>. “For instance, the video of George Floyd’s death in police custody was first publicized on Twitter, and then mainstream news circulated the footage,” he wrote.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three young people stand in a plaza holding handwritten protest signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502249/original/file-20221220-6028-72tuh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Twitter has been a crucial conduit for documenting police brutality against Black people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenmelkisethian/16177252539/in/faves-64221995@N00/">Stephen Melkisethian/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Losing Black Twitter would mean losing robust, rapid and authentic information sharing on police brutality within the Black community, Hawkins observed. “Black Twitter and the information it provides is literally a matter of life and death,” he wrote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-twitters-expected-demise-would-make-it-harder-to-publicize-police-brutality-and-discuss-racism-195146">Black Twitter's expected demise would make it harder to publicize police brutality and discuss racism</a>
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<h2>5. Pack your bags, but to where?</h2>
<p>The changes Twitter is undergoing have prompted many people to leave the platform, and more to consider doing so. The potential depopulation of the social media platform is a scenario that University of Colorado Boulder information science researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D9LfKkAe7d0C&hl=en&oi=ao">Casey Fiesler</a> has seen – and studied – before.</p>
<p>There is “essentially zero chance” that the majority of Twitter users can simply move to another platform and resume business as usual, she noted. Migrating to another platform <a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-migration-from-twitter-is-likely-to-be-an-uphill-battle-just-ask-ex-tumblr-users-193677">is an uphill battle</a>. “When social media platforms fall, sometimes the online communities that made their homes there fade away, and sometimes they pack their bags and relocate to a new home,” she wrote.</p>
<p>Previous social media platform migrations have shown the challenges: content loss, fragmented communities, broken social networks and shifted community norms, according to Fiesler. “But Twitter isn’t one community, it’s a collection of many communities, each with its own norms and motivations,” she wrote. “Some communities might be able to migrate more successfully than others.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-migration-from-twitter-is-likely-to-be-an-uphill-battle-just-ask-ex-tumblr-users-193677">Mass migration from Twitter is likely to be an uphill battle – just ask ex-Tumblr users</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The intersection of content management, misinformation, aggregated data about human behavior and crowdsourcing shows how fragile Twitter is and what would be lost with the platform’s demise.Eric Smalley, Science + Technology EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1692442021-10-06T12:31:19Z2021-10-06T12:31:19ZFacebook’s scandals and outage test users’ frenemy relationship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424620/original/file-20211005-21-e6oftv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7951%2C5261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How do you feel about Facebook?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/relationship-difficulties-bad-news-royalty-free-image/1292581709">Enes Evren/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Facebook was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-instagram-down-thousands-users-downdetectorcom-2021-10-04/">down for most of the day</a> on Oct. 4, 2021, did you miss it, were you relieved or some of both? Social scientists have compiled an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817695745">expansive body of research</a> that shows how people have come to develop a love-hate relationship with the social media giant with nearly 3 billion users.</p>
<p>Many users have felt their relationship with the platform devolve into a messy codependence, mired by ambiguity and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/trust-facebook-has-dropped-51-percent-cambridge-analytica-scandal-n867011">mistrust</a>. For others, reliance on the platform is taken for granted, if occasionally <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-social-media-usage">appreciated in moments of pandemic isolation</a>. </p>
<p>And then there are the revelations that the company has been lying about <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-files-xcheck-zuckerberg-elite-rules-11631541353">applying its rules differently to important people</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-has-known-for-a-year-and-a-half-that-instagram-is-bad-for-teens-despite-claiming-otherwise-here-are-the-harms-researchers-have-been-documenting-for-years-168043">knowingly harming teen girls</a> and having a big <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-vaccinated-11631880296">vaccine misinformation problem</a>. Adding insult to injury, Facebook <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/why-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-went-down-outage/">locked its keys in its car</a> and didn’t show up for over five hours. In short, Facebook is a hot mess.</p>
<p>All this leads to an extremely high-maintenance relationship, leaving users to wonder whether they should just move on with healthier friends. But it wasn’t always like this. </p>
<p><iframe id="uM7TJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/uM7TJ/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Friendly beginnings</h2>
<p>At its launch, Facebook was one of the most authentic social networking partners. Existing online networks, like MySpace, had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/myspace-yes-facebook-kills-our-traffic-but-at-least-we-make-money-nws">influential parent companies</a> that chaperoned their platforms, pestering users with ads and gimmicks. But Facebook promised something different: a genuine connection. It was an unexploited social space to live your best life – well before anyone <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hashbrag">hashbragged</a> it. </p>
<p>Still today, a friendship with Facebook comes with plenty of perks. Most importantly, it is the friend who brings everyone together. Participating in this community is shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x">strengthen relationships</a> between close friends and casual acquaintances. Individuals can bond over community causes, shared identities and amusing videos. Facebook has been credited for helping organize coalitions that <a href="https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol8/iss1/art11/">took down dictators</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/health/the-ice-bucket-challenge-helped-scientists-discover-a-new-gene-tied-to-als.html">raised millions of dollars to fight disease</a>.</p>
<p>Adding to Facebook’s popularity, it lets users carefully curate a public image, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0411">emphasizing the best parts of their lives</a>. The site has become a central source not only for information about one another, but also the world. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/01/12/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-in-2020/">Over half of U.S. Facebook users report regularly consuming news on the platform</a>.</p>
<p>Academics friended Facebook, too. I led a study revealing that it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817695745">the most researched subject</a> in the field of information and communication technology since 2005. This focus has led to advances in understanding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.09.004">online interactions</a>, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0226">digital activism</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x">human psychology</a>. </p>
<h2>Undermining trust</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255860/original/file-20190128-108370-nl4qrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Facebook vacuums up users’ data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/orangec-cartoon-vacuums-bits-isolated-on-80203072">Alexander Limbach/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But Facebook’s stunning success has <a href="http://time.com/5505441/mark-zuckerberg-mentor-facebook-downfall/">come at the expense</a> of the privacy of its virtual friends. Its “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/10/transcript-of-mark-zuckerbergs-senate-hearing/">we sell ads</a>” business model <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facts-about-facebook-11548374613">may sound benign</a>, but the platform <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-wsj.html">collects more data and information</a> about users than they may consciously <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/17/how-to-find-out-what-facebook-knows-about-me.html">know about themselves</a>. </p>
<p>By <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-targeting-model-really-worked-according-to-the-person-who-built-it-94078">sharing users’ data</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-wsj.html">enabling disinformation campaigns</a> and election interference, Facebook has revealed its allegiances – and they don’t involve protecting users. Carelessness, or what increasingly looks like intentional abuse, of user data has made it <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-quit-facebook-but-dont-trust-it-either-93776">difficult to trust the platform</a> with people’s most intimate relationships.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the company continues to change what information people see on its platform, which has consequences. Research finds that users can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320040111">emotionally manipulated</a> by changes to Facebook’s algorithm. This has made the public more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159641">politically polarized</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1077699016630255">less likely to share minority views</a> – implications that may derail democracy. </p>
<p>Algorithms that foster day-to-day social comparison have also taken a toll on mental health. Recent research convincingly shows that Facebook use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841">dampens individuals’ happiness</a> – both immediately and over the long term. Using Facebook has been linked to depression and so many other negative psychological outcomes that it inspired a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.02.009">summary report</a> of 56 studies on the topic.</p>
<h2>Frenemies for now</h2>
<p>Despite widespread <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-deletefacebook-is-one-thing-left-and-right-agree-on-2021-7">calls to #DeleteFacebook</a>, most users have maintained their profiles and found themselves disrupted by its most recent outage. Why? Because abstaining from Facebook means giving up a network that has social currency and value. The site boasted <a href="https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2021/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Results/default.aspx">2.8 billion active users</a> at the end of 2020, more than a third of the global population. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/house-antitrust-committee-facebook-monopoly-buys-kills-competitors.html">As members of Congress have pointed out</a>, Facebook has few market competitors, meaning it serves as a primary, if not the only, way for large groups to connect. It holds users together (or sometimes hostage) by maintaining relationships with all their friends. </p>
<p>For those who prefer Instagram or WhatsApp, know that Facebook owns those too, and is working to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/facebook-instagram-whatsapp-messenger.html">consolidate the technology behind them</a>. These platforms also went down yesterday. Even people with the willpower to de-friend Facebook will <a href="https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-facebook-out-of-my-life-surprisingly-i-missed-i-1830565456">still find their data swept up</a> in content that others add to the platform and its affiliates. It’s nearly impossible to escape Facebook’s orbit. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, recapturing the public’s trust will require significant changes. Options for unaltered news feeds, transparent advertising, and user control of data and metadata would be good places to start. But currently, it’s unclear whether Facebook will make these changes to salvage its billions of friendships. </p>
<p>In the meantime, most of Facebook’s friends are <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/05/americans-are-changing-their-relationship-with-facebook/">updating their privacy settings</a> and just trying to coexist.</p>
<p><em>This is an update of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-facebook-went-from-friend-to-frenemy-110130">article originally published on Jan. 30, 2019</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Stoycheff has received grant funding from WhatsApp, but it has not influenced the information in this article.</span></em></p>Facebook users no longer see the site as a confidant. They’re struggling with how to deal with a messy codependence – and whether to just break up and move on with healthier friends.Elizabeth Stoycheff, Associate Professor of Communication, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1552232021-02-12T14:22:39Z2021-02-12T14:22:39ZMyanmar: memes and mantras of a new generation of democracy protesters<p>What do the internet memes <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/doge">Doge</a> and <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cheems">Cheems</a>, the Hollywood film franchise The Hunger Games, and a sachet of instant tea have in common? They are all part of a rich lexicon of protest now being deployed by young activists contesting Myanmar’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/myanmar-coup-how-the-military-has-held-onto-power-for-60-years-154526">military coup</a>. </p>
<p>The country has been in turmoil since the military seized control on February 1, imprisoning state councillor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and leading NLD party officials, who won another landslide victory in November’s elections.</p>
<p>But, as a new generation of protesters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics-protest-idUSKBN2A702Y">take to the streets</a> of the country’s towns and cities in growing numbers, they are drawing on a range of internet memes, slogans, cartoons, and cultural symbols to make themselves heard and mobilise support within the country and across the region.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/08/three-finger-salute-hunger-games-symbol-adopted-by-myanmars-protesters">three-finger salute</a>, initially appropriated from the hugely popular The Hunger Games trilogy by young democracy activists protesting the 2014 military coup in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2020/8/19/in-pictures-thai-students-hunger-games-protests-spread/">neighbouring Thailand</a>, is their shared signal of defiance, enumerating the need for equality, freedom, and solidarity as they find themselves engaged in a similarly dystopian struggle with an unscrupulous tyrant.</p>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/episodes/myanmars-collective-fury?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p>They deploy cartoon characters including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/08/three-finger-salute-hunger-games-symbol-adopted-by-myanmars-protesters">Pepe the Frog</a> and the internet memes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/08/three-finger-salute-hunger-games-symbol-adopted-by-myanmars-protesters">Doge and Cheems</a> to ridicule senior general Min Aung Hlaing and other junta leaders. Their placards are in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55982001">English as much as Burmese</a>, and they now set the protest songs employed by previous generations of the country’s pro-democracy activists to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210209-worse-than-my-ex-myanmar-s-very-online-youth-take-on-the-junta">western rap and hip-hop</a> soundtracks.</p>
<p>Myanmar’s young protesters epitomise a culture of transnational activism now favoured by a generation of technically savvy and increasingly cosmopolitan young people intent on resisting the imposition of authoritarian agendas. </p>
<h2>Sharing a taste for (milk) tea</h2>
<p>As the authorities suspend the internet and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/6/22269831/myanmar-orders-block-twitter-facebook-instagram-military-coup">block social media platforms</a> such as Facebook, many are resorting to VPN access to get their message out on Instagram, TikTok and Discord through an avalanche of rapidly mutating hashtags. Likeminded netizens in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand are working in support through the <a href="https://time.com/5904114/milk-tea-alliance/">Milk Tea Alliance</a>, a movement pushing for democratic change across south-east Asia and beyond.</p>
<p>This diffuse, largely online, democratic solidarity movement unites young people confronting riot police in downtown Yangon and Mandalay with <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3118468/thailands-king-works-bolster-his-image-protests-set">Thai youth in Bangkok</a> campaigning for reform of the monarchy, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-security-timeline-idUSKBN29B0B7">pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong</a> contesting Beijing’s National Security Law, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/10/milk-tea-alliance-anti-china/616658/">and young Taiwanese nationalists</a> countering the increased presence of Chinese trolls and bots from the internet cafes of Taipei. </p>
<p>Thai artist Sina Wittayawiroj’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Milk_Tea_Alliance/comments/legj53/the_new_milk_tea_alliance_sina_wittayawiroj/">illustration</a> of a set of fists defiantly holding aloft steaming cups of milk tea – fast becoming the unofficial logo of the alliance – has now been joined by one bearing the Myanmar flag. Images of <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3120526/asias-milkteaalliance-has-new-target-brewing-generals-behind">Royal Myanmar “Teamix” sachets</a>, featuring its distinctive milky brew much like Thailand’s orange-hued and Taiwan’s boba tea, are being enthusiastically disseminated on social media and emblazoned on street placards.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graphic posters depicting arms aloft with cups of milky tea, symbolising dissent across south-east Asia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383973/original/file-20210212-21-nts69x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Solidari-tea’: poster for the Milk Tea Alliance, an protest meme spreading across south-east Asia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Sina Wittayawiroj</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like other members of the alliance, <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/myanmar-anti-coup-protesters-rally-at-chinese-embassy-14171132">they are quick to blame China</a> (where tea is of course traditionally served without milk) as they accuse Beijing of lending the Myanmar military logistic support as well as working to undermine democratic rights and freedoms elsewhere in the region.</p>
<p>Solidarity is being expressed by the alliance in other ways. Some young activists in Myanmar are wearing hard hats like the “flashmobs” in Hong Kong, and others have created impromptu “<a href="https://twitter.com/JohnLiuNN/status/1359394538356264965">Lennon Walls</a>” on bridges and underpasses redolent of those created by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lennon-walls-herald-a-sticky-note-revolution-in-hong-kong-129740">Umbrella Movement</a> there. These, in turn, were inspired by anti-communist street propaganda in Europe’s former Eastern bloc shortly after the assassination of the Beatles front man. </p>
<p>Young members of Thailand’s Progressive Movement and anti-establishment organisation Ratsadon (The People) have <a href="https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-politicians-and-activists-join-myanmar-people-at-embassy-to-protest-against-the-coup-in-myanmar/">organised solidarity protests</a> banging pots and pans as anti-coup demonstrators are doing nightly in Myanmar to drive out evil spirits which have torn down their fledgling democracy.</p>
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<p>One young aerobics instructor in the the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw happened to <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3120255/myanmar-aerobics-instructor-dances-indonesian-protest-anthem">record a video</a> of her regular workout session in front of the Burmese government buildings as armoured personnel carriers moved into the shot. This has subsequently been set to an Indonesian protest anthem which has gone viral.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55930799">Art</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-02-05/myanmar-coup-youth-movement-democracy-rebel-riot-band">music</a> are being expertly employed to articulate messages of protest and solidarity that bridge cultural and linguistic divides and unite political interests.</p>
<h2>The past is a foreign country</h2>
<p>Not for the first time, young people – particularly educated young people – are playing a decisive role in Myanmar’s growing civil disobedience movement. Student protests in 1920, 1936, 1962, 1974, 1988, 2007 and 2015 have been part of the long struggle for independence and democracy. They ignited the momentous democratic uprising in 1988, and the so-called “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/saffron-revolution-good-monk-myth/541116/">Saffron Revolution</a>” in 2007, when the country’s monks joined them on the streets in a defiant show of moral support.</p>
<p>For the most part, these popular uprisings were violently crushed. It is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-inside-the-saffron-revolution-5329400.html">estimated</a> that hundreds if not thousands died in the 1988 uprisings alone. How is this latest expression of dissent likely to be any different? Already we hear of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/09/myanmar-protesters-curfew-junta-demonstrators-army">police brutality</a> and with the protests gathering momentum it is likely the authorities will respond with increasing force. </p>
<p>Indeed, the stage is set for just such a confrontation as the commitment of young people – largely innocent of history but with a brief taste of freedom – encounter the dark forces of authoritarian rule that have yet again undermined a democratic future for their beleaguered country.</p>
<p>And yet there is hope that this generation of young activists might succeed where others have failed. They are politically and technically literate. They inhabit a wider world than young pro-democracy activists in Myanmar have done in the past. They have access to new places and spaces of protest thanks to the technological benefits of globalisation. They are actively forging new networks of solidarity and resistance beyond their country and communities. They are, in short, on the right side of history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Dolan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Hunger Games salute, teabags and Pepe the Frog are being adopted by young pro-democracy activists across south-east Asia.Richard Dolan, Post-doctoral researcher, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1490392020-10-28T18:58:41Z2020-10-28T18:58:41ZOn Twitter, bots spread conspiracy theories and QAnon talking points<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366240/original/file-20201028-21-1vjk0um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=505%2C252%2C5371%2C5689&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are you being deceived by a robot?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/customer-user-man-chatting-with-chatbot-royalty-free-illustration/1185431758">Alina Kvaratskhelia/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans who seek political insight and information on Twitter should know how much of what they are seeing is the result of automated propaganda campaigns.</p>
<p>Nearly four years after my collaborators and I revealed <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-twitter-bots-affected-the-us-presidential-campaign-68406">how automated Twitter accounts</a> were <a href="https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/7090/5653">distorting online election discussions</a> in 2016, the situation appears to be no better. That’s despite the efforts of policymakers, technology companies and even the public to root out disinformation campaigns on social media.</p>
<p>In our latest study, we <a href="https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/11431">collected 240 million election-related tweets</a> mentioning presidential candidates and election-related keywords, posted between June 20 and Sept. 9, 2020. We looked for activity from automated (or bot) accounts, and the spread of distorted or conspiracy theory narratives. </p>
<p>We learned that on Twitter, many conspiracy theories, including QAnon, may not be quite as popular among real people as media reports indicate. But automation can significantly increase the distribution of these ideas, inflating their power by reaching unsuspecting users who may be drawn in not by posts from their fellow humans, but from bots programmed to spread the word. </p>
<h2>Bots amplify conspiracy theories</h2>
<p>Typically, bots are created by people or groups who want to amplify certain ideas or points of view. We found that bots are roughly equally active in online discussions of both right-wing and left-wing perspectives, making up about 5% of the Twitter accounts active in those threads. </p>
<p>Bots appear to thrive in political groups discussing conspiracy theories, making up nearly 13% of the accounts tweeting or retweeting posts with conspiracy theory-related hashtags and keywords.</p>
<p>Then we looked more closely at three major categories of conspiracies. One was a category of alleged scandals described using the suffix “-gate,” such as “Pizzagate” and “Obamagate.” The second was COVID-19-related political conspiracies, such as biased claims that the virus was deliberately spread by China or that it could be spread via products imported from China. The third was the QAnon movement, which has been called a “<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/drumoorhouse/qanon-mass-collective-delusion-buzzfeed-news-copy-desk">collective delusion</a>” and a “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/tech/qanon-europe-cult-intl/index.html">virtual cult</a>.”</p>
<p>These three categories overlap: Accounts tweeting about material in one of them were likely to also tweet about material in at least one of the others.</p>
<h2>The link to right-wing media</h2>
<p>We found that the accounts that are prone to share conspiratorial narratives are significantly more likely than nonconspirator accounts to tweet links to, or retweet posts from, right-leaning media such as One America News Network, Infowars and Breitbart.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Bots play an important role as well: More than 20% of the accounts sharing content from those hyperpartisan platforms are bots. And most of those accounts also distribute conspiracy-related content.</p>
<p>Twitter has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/03/twitter-banished-worst-qanon-accounts-more-than-93000-remain-site-research-shows/">recently tried to limit</a> the <a href="https://mediaschool.indiana.edu/news-events/news/item.html?n=qanon-story-gains-credence-with-up-to-44-of-americans">spread of QAnon</a> and other conspiracy theories on its site. But that may not be enough to stem the tide. To contribute to the global effort against social media manipulation, we have <a href="https://github.com/echen102/us-pres-elections-2020">publicly released the dataset</a> used in our work to <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.00600">assist future studies</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emilio Ferrara does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Twitter bots amplify conspiracy theories, including the so-called ‘collective delusion’ that is QAnon, making them appear more popular and able to reach more real humans.Emilio Ferrara, Associate Professor of Computer Science; USC Viterbi School of Engineering; Associate Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1483142020-10-27T05:25:05Z2020-10-27T05:25:05ZFacebook is tilting the political playing field more than ever, and it’s no accident<p>As the US presidential election polling day draws close, it’s worth recapping what we know about how Facebook has been used to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3834737/">influence election results</a>.</p>
<p>The platform is optimised for boosting politically conservative voices calling for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/26/facebook-algorithm-conservative-liberal-extremes/">fascism, separatism and xenophobia</a>. It’s also these voices that tend to generate <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/radical-ideas-social-media-algorithms/">the most clicks</a>. </p>
<p>In recent years, Facebook has on several occasions been made to choose between keeping to its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/introduction">community standards</a> or taking a path that avoids the ire of conservatives. Too many times, it has chosen the latter.</p>
<p>The result has been an onslaught of divisive rhetoric that continues to flood the platform and drive political polarisation in society.</p>
<h2>How democracy can be subverted online</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/russian-interference-trump-democrats.html">The New York Times</a>, earlier this year US intelligence officials warned Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential campaign, with the goal of seeing President Donald Trump re-elected.</p>
<p>This was corroborated by <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-evidence-shows-how-russias-election-interference-has-gotten-more">findings</a> from the US Brennan Centre for Justice. A research team led by journalism and communications professor Young Mie Kim identified a range of Facebook troll accounts deliberately sowing division “by targeting both the left and right, with posts to foment outrage, fear and hostility”.</p>
<p>Most were linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions/u-s-blacklists-individuals-entities-linked-to-leader-of-russias-ira-idUSKCN26E2HO">the company</a> also behind a 2016 US election influence campaign. Kim <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-evidence-shows-how-russias-election-interference-has-gotten-more">wrote</a> the troll accounts seemed to discourage certain people from voting, with a focus on swing states.</p>
<p>This month, Facebook <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/technology/facebook-qanon-crackdown.html">announced</a> a ban (across both Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns) on groups and pages devoted to the far-right conspiracy group QAnon. It also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-takes-down-network-tied-to-conservative-group-citing-fake-accounts-11602174088">removed</a> a network of fake accounts linked to a conservative US political youth group, for violating rules against “coordinated inauthentic behavior”.</p>
<p>However, despite Facebook’s <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-latest-fix-for-fake-news-ask-users-what-they-trust/">repeated promises</a> to clamp down harder on such behaviour — and <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-removing-qanon-pages-and-groups-from-its-sites-but-critical-thinking-is-still-the-best-way-to-fight-conspiracy-theories-147668">occasional</a> efforts to actually do so — the company has been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/samantha-power-facebook-reduce-spread-misinformation/2020/10/23/d54c1bda-1496-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html">widely</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/14/facebook-greatest-source-of-covid-19-disinformation-journalists-say">criticised</a> for doing far too little to curb the spread of disinformation, misinformation and election meddling.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/93/2019/09/CyberTroop-Report19.pdf">University of Oxford study</a>, 70 countries (including Australia) practised either foreign or domestic election meddling in 2019. This was up from 48 in 2018 and 28 in 2017. The study said Facebook was “the platform of choice” for this.</p>
<p>The Conversation approached Facebook for comment regarding the platform’s use by political actors to influence elections, including past US elections. A Facebook spokesperson said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve hired experts, built teams with experience across different areas, and created new products, policies and partnerships to ensure we’re ready for the unique challenges of the US election. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>When Facebook favoured one side</h2>
<p>Facebook has drawn widespread criticism for its failure to remove posts that clearly violate its policies on hate speech, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/28/facebook-zuckerberg-trump-hate/">posts</a> by Trump himself.</p>
<p>The company openly <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2019/09/elections-and-political-speech/">exempts</a> politicians from its fact-checking program and knowingly hosts misleading content from politicians, under its “newsworthiness exception”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1131728912835383300"}"></div></p>
<p>When Facebook tried to clamp down on misinformation in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential elections, <a href="https://www.bushcenter.org/people/joel-kaplan.html">ex-Republican staffer</a> turned Facebook executive Joel Kaplan argued doing so would disproportionately target conservatives, the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/20/facebook-republican-shift/">reported</a>.</p>
<p>The Conversation asked Facebook whether Kaplan’s past political affiliations indicated a potential for conservative bias in his current role. The question wasn’t answered.</p>
<p>Facebook’s board also now features a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/technology/peter-thiel-donald-j-trump.html">major Trump donor</a> and vocal supporter, Peter Thiel. Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has himself been accused of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/business/media/facebook-donald-trump-mark-zuckerberg.html">getting “too close”</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/22/surprised-about-mark-zuckerbergs-secret-meeting-with-trump-dont-be">Trump</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, when the US Federal Trade Commission investigated Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/facebook-fine-ftc-privacy-violations">Republican votes</a> that saved the company from facing antitrust litigation.</p>
<p>Overall, Facebook’s model has shifted <a href="https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/4/11/18305407/social-network-conservative-bias-twitter-facebook-ted-cruz">towards increasing polarisation</a>. Incendiary and misinformation-laden posts tend to generate clicks.</p>
<p>As Zuckerberg himself <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-blueprint-for-content-governance-and-enforcement/10156443129621634/">notes</a>, “when left unchecked, people on the platform engage disproportionately” with such content.</p>
<p>Over the years, conservatives have accused Facebook of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/10/ted-cruz-threatens-regulate-facebook-twitter-over-alleged-bias/3423095002/">anti-conservative bias</a>, for which the company faced <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/trump-campaign-halts-twitter-spending-over-disgusting-bias-against-mitch-mcconnell/">financial penalties by the Republican Party</a>. This is despite research indicating <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/study-analysis-top-facebook-pages-covering-american-political-news">no such bias exists</a> on the platform.</p>
<h2>Fanning the flames</h2>
<p>Facebook’s <a href="https://www.livescience.com/49585-facebook-addiction-viewed-brain.html">addictive</a> news feed rewards us for simply skimming headlines, conditioning us to react viscerally.</p>
<p>Its sharing features have been found to <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1146">promote falsehoods</a>. They can <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/can-voting-facebook-button-improve-voter-turnout/">trick users</a> into attributing news to their friends, causing them to assign trust to unreliable news sources. This provides a breeding ground for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-10-05/conspiracy-theories-coronavirus-5g-conspiratorial-psychology/12722320">conspiracies</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-the-social-dilemma-highlights-the-problem-with-social-media-but-whats-the-solution-147351">Netflix's The Social Dilemma highlights the problem with social media, but what's the solution?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0207383">Studies</a> have also shown social media to be an ideal environment for campaigns aimed at creating mistrust, which explains the increasing <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/516412-polls-show-trust-in-scientific-political-institutions-eroding">erosion of trust in science and expertise</a>.</p>
<p>Worst of all are Facebook’s “echo chambers”, which convince people that only their own opinions are mainstream. This encourages hostile “us versus them” dialogue, which leads to polarisation. This pattern <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/02/21/concerns-about-democracy-in-the-digital-age/">suppresses valuable democratic debate</a> and has been described as an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Age-Surveillance-Capitalism-Future-Frontier/dp/1610395697">existential threat to democracy itself</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Facebook’s staff hasn’t been shy about skewing liberal, even suggesting in 2016 that Facebook work to <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/04/facebook-employees-asked-mark-zuckerberg-if-they-should-try-to-stop-a-donald-trump-presidency/">prevent Trump’s election</a>. Around 2017, they proposed a feature called “<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/23/18154111/facebook-common-grounds-feature-conservative-bias-concerns-shelved-joel-kaplan">Common Ground</a>”, which would have encouraged users with different political beliefs to interact in less hostile ways.</p>
<p>Kaplan opposed the proposition, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-lonely-conservative-takes-on-a-power-position-11545570000">The Wall Street Journal</a>, due to fears it could trigger claims of bias against conservatives. The project was eventually shelved in 2018.</p>
<p>Facebook’s track record isn’t good news for those who want to live in a healthy democratic state. Polarisation certainly doesn’t lead to effective political discourse. </p>
<p>While several <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/preparing-for-election-day/">blog</a> <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/08/preparing-for-myanmars-2020-election/">posts</a> from the company outline measures being taken to supposedly protect the integrity of the 2020 US presidential elections, it remains to be seen what this means in reality.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/seeing-is-believing-how-media-mythbusting-can-actually-make-false-beliefs-stronger-138515">Seeing is believing: how media mythbusting can actually make false beliefs stronger</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Brand does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Facebook benefits financially from misinformation spreading on its platform. As long as it puts profits ahead of public good, the tilting of the political landscape will persist.Michael Brand, Adjunct A/Prof of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1478152020-10-09T22:13:41Z2020-10-09T22:13:41ZMike Pence’s fly: From Renaissance portraits to Salvador Dalí, artists used flies to make a point about appearances<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362781/original/file-20201009-17-q4wkxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1623%2C764&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family,' Swabian artist, c. 1470, and a picture showing a fly on U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence during the Oct. 7 debate at University of Utah in Salt Lake City.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wikimedia Commons/AP Photo/Julio Cortez) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After this week’s vice-presidential debate in the United States, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwVRqKhM9Gg">the fly that landed on Vice-President Mike Pence’s</a> head <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54459544">was more of a sensation than the details of the debate</a> — at least on social media.
The fly has already been immortalized as a <a href="https://store.joebiden.com/truth-over-flies-fly-swatter/">Biden/Harris fly swatter</a> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/10/08/fly-pence-head-vp-debate-biden-harris-campaign-fly-swatters/5927281002/">(sorry, they’re all sold out)</a> and sparked <a href="https://people.com/style/the-fly-that-landed-on-mike-pences-head-during-the-vp-debate-is-now-a-halloween-costume/">a Halloween costume</a>. </p>
<p>In many circumstances, flies are unremarkable. That’s probably why a <a href="https://www.lexico.com/definition/mouchard">French word for spy</a> is connected to the same word <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/mouche">for fly, <em>mouche</em></a>. When a fly becomes famous, it’s worth wondering why. </p>
<p>Flies have long held <a href="https://www.academia.edu/28237822/Catching_an_Absent_Fly">symbolic meaning in the history of art</a>. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life (buzzbuzzpfft!). In the great scheme of things, our lives are no longer than that of a fly. For me as an art historian, the fly was a moment to reflect not only on the history of flies in western painting, but to begin considering what the long <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/life-imitates-art-and-so-a-fly-landed-on-mike-pences-head/2020/10/08/07bb328e-0918-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html">history of this symbolism</a> may reveal about why the fly generated so much buzz. </p>
<h2>Humility, impermanence, illusion</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Renaissance Portrait of a woman with a fly on her head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362731/original/file-20201009-15-9syegv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family,’ c. 1470, by an artist from the German (Swabian) School.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:German_(Swabian)_School_-_Portrait_of_a_Woman_of_the_Hofer_Family_-_NG722_-_National_Gallery.jpg">(Wikimedia Commons)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Take, for example, an extraordinary little painting known today as <em><a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/swabian-portrait-of-a-woman-of-the-hofer-family">Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family</a></em>, painted in about 1470 by an artist from the German (Swabian) School, now <a href="https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/portrait-of-a-woman-of-the-hofer-family-114961">in the National Gallery in London</a>. Her elaborate white head covering highlights a perfect little fly, that’s settled on her just to remind us <a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-lush-17th-century-paintings-striking-reminders-mortality">that our life, like hers, is impermanent</a>. </p>
<p>The corollary is that we’re supposed to do the best we can with the time we’ve got. When it comes to time and eternity, <a href="https://poets.org/poem/fly">as painter and poet William Blake wrote</a>: “Am not I / A fly like thee? / Or art not thou / A man like me?” The fly is a little reminder of humility. </p>
<p>Painters could also include a fly to draw attention to themselves, demonstrating with their “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040928002941/http://www.nga.gov/press/2002/exhibitions/deceptions/walltxt.shtm">trompe-l’oeil</a>” (deceiving the eye) tricks that they could paint in a manner that seemed so real, a viewer of the portrait would be tempted to try to swat the fly away. The 16th-century Italian painter <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giorgio-Vasari">Giorgio Vasari, biographer of Italian Renaissance artists</a>, tells a story about the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-lives-of-the-artists-9780199537198?cc=ca&lang=en&">painter Giotto fooling his teacher Cimabue</a> by adding a realistic-looking fly to a painting. </p>
<p>Salvador Dalí, who was pretty much the lord of the flies (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/59.1.28">he painted them a lot</a>) included a fly on the watch face of his painting <em><a href="https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018">The Persistence of Memory</a></em> (now housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York). He also used an army of ants to signify the decay of time and life’s impermanence.</p>
<h2>All is not not what it appears</h2>
<p><em>Portrait of a Carthusian</em>, the most famous portrait featuring a fly, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, was painted by Petrus Christus in 1446. It depicts a bearded monk. The fly perched on the ledge in front of him signifies we’re entering a zone where all is not what it appears: we might say that what seems real is only an illusion. Or, perhaps the artist has enhanced “<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435896">the quality of the subject’s ‘real’ presence by the fly resting momentarily on the fictive frame</a>,” according to the museum. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a bearded monk with a fly painted on the frame." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362730/original/file-20201009-19-1f4p0ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Portrait of a Carthusian’ (1446), by Petrus Christus, oil on wood. Held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christus_carthusian.jpg">(Wikimedia Commons)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Entomologist Ron Cherry has explored how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/57.2.82">insects have long-standing mythological associations with death</a>. In Renaissance thought, which tended to blend medieval fabulist tales about nature with ideas about religion, flies were considered to represent <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/An_Illustrated_Encyclopaedia_of_Traditio.html?id=0P86CwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">supernatural power, mostly associated with evil and corruption, because they seemed to be spontaneously born from decaying fruit and rotting organic matter</a>. </p>
<p>In the book of Exodus in the Bible, God mustered <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/5-bible-verses-about-flies">swarms of flies</a> as <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%208&version=NIV">punishment</a>. They were harbingers of worse things, like pestilence and death. That’s a lot of deliverables for a bunch of tiny flies. </p>
<p>The point is that flies still remind us of unpleasant things, or as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/what-vp-debate-was-like-sound-off/616654/">commentator David Frum noted, unpleasant things in a presidency we’d rather ignore</a> — which is why, I suspect, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-election-2020-biden/index.html">given the administration’s record</a>, some people found it so delightful.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Hickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Flies have long held symbolic meaning in the history of art. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life.Sally Hickson, Associate Professor, Art History, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1421212020-07-21T12:11:16Z2020-07-21T12:11:16ZSocial networks aim to erase hate but miss the target on guns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347777/original/file-20200715-31-s0fppo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C18%2C4187%2C2789&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Imagery and talk of guns can often be thinly veiled forms of threats.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gun-rights-advocates-attend-a-rally-organized-by-the-news-photo/1194885540">Zach Gibson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Facebook faces down a costly <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/07/03/activists-advertising-boycott-facebook-348528">boycott campaign</a> demanding the social network do more to combat hate speech, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced plans to ban a “<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/facebook-ban-wider-category-hateful-content-ads-211143719.html">wider category of hateful content in ads</a>.” Twitter, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/tech/white-supremacists-youtube/index.html">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884819923/reddit-bans-the_donald-forum-of-nearly-800-000-trump-fans-over-abusive-posts">Reddit</a> have also taken additional steps to curtail online hate, removing several inflammatory accounts.</p>
<p>But as social networks refine their policies and update algorithms for detecting extremism, they overlook a major source of hateful content: gun talk.</p>
<p>As a researcher of <a href="http://contemporaryrhetoric.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Klein_10_1_2_1.pdf">online extremism</a>, I examined the user policies of social networks and found that while each address textbook forms of hate speech, they give a pass to the widespread use of gun rhetoric that celebrates or promotes violence. </p>
<p>In fact, the word “gun” appears but once in Facebook’s policy on “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/credible_violence">Violence and incitement</a>” to bar the manipulation of images to include a gun to the head. And neither “guns” nor “firearms” are mentioned in Twitter’s policy on “<a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/glorification-of-violence">Glorifications of violence</a>,” or YouTube’s guidelines on “<a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802008?hl=en&ref_topic=9282436">Violent or graphic content</a>” or within any of these networks’ rules on hate speech. </p>
<h2>Gun talk as a threat</h2>
<p>Gun references have become prevalent in social media dialogues involving the nationwide protests over racial injustice, police reform and the Black Lives Matter movement. </p>
<p>On Facebook, a group called White Lives Matter shared <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=668702713717092&id=157727848147917">a post</a> that reads, “Don’t allow yourself or your property to become a victim of violence. Pick up your weapon and defend yourself.” Another user posted the picture of a handgun beneath the message, “I never carried a weapon, never needed it, but I have changed my mind and will apply for what I deem necessary to handle things my way … Tired of all these BLM idiots looters.” </p>
<p>While nearly every social network <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-ai-hate-speech-improves-unclear/">works to identify</a> and prohibit violent speech, gun groups have managed to evade censure. One such Facebook community gleefully taunts protesters with the prospect of retaliation by firearm. They share <a href="https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p526x296/103691582_3099427690092818_8668962292509694017_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=E6uvremEhw0AX_3WROa&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_tp=6&oh=2ad4e8b3c24c4292f5b27d7ee2a070e6&oe=5F25624F">a meme</a> of a stack of bullets surrounded by the caption, “If you defund the police you should know, I don’t own any rubber bullets.” </p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<p>Twitter users have also exploited that network’s lack of restrictions on gun talk. Hashtags like #GetYourGuns and <a href="https://twitter.com/jakedavesolomon/status/1281673794852139014">#2ndAmendment</a> appear in political statements made against <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimesMelan/status/845805679852113920">the police</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/LP083061/status/1273674518666661894">protesters</a> alike. A recent video of a police officer punching a suspect behind the wheel is the subject of <a href="https://twitter.com/wakeupamerica96/status/1266109900234489856">a tweet</a> that promises in turn, “We will take action into our hands. #getyourguns.”</p>
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<p>Another tweet citing #guns features <a href="https://twitter.com/occupycorruptDC/status/1280131644154949633">the viral video of a Florida sheriff</a> warning that the people of his county “like guns” and “will be in their homes tonight with their guns loaded.” He continues, “And if you try to break into their homes to steal, to set fires, I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of their house with their guns.” The same video trends across TikTok and Facebook where one gun group concurs, “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/GUNS2016/videos/1716415951857635">I couldn’t agree more!</a>”</p>
<p>These examples do not disseminate racial slurs or direct violence, but they do allow users to stoke hostilities in a way that is accepted by social networks. And the mixture of culture wars and gun talk can be a dangerous concoction, as made evident by the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/16/us/exclusive-school-shooter-instagram-group/index.html">Instagram posts of the 19-year-old assailant</a> who later killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 2018. The AR-15 that he used in that shooting was the frequent subject of his social media posts that accompanied rants about illegal immigrants, African Americans, the Jewish community and law enforcement. </p>
<h2>Setting the tone</h2>
<p>The debate over online gun rhetoric is not new to Silicon Valley. In 2018, streaming services like Amazon, Google and Roku were the subject of a high-profile boycott campaign, led by anti-gun advocates. The campaign called upon streaming services to stop hosting the online channel of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nras-video-channel-is-a-hotbed-of-online-hostility-92477">National Rifle Association, NRATV</a>, citing its frequent use of “<a href="https://act.everytown.org/sign/tell-streaming-services-its-time-to-drop-nratv_ET/">hateful rhetoric</a>.” One such video opens with scenes of an NRA spokesman in the midst of target practice as he unleashes a diatribe centering on riotous protesters and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSrM8kq12-g">obstructionist politicians</a>.” </p>
<p><a href="http://contemporaryrhetoric.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Klein_10_1_2_1.pdf">My study</a> found that NRATV dedicated the overwhelming majority of its content to denouncing liberal groups, media and movements like the Women’s March. Coupled with the gun lobby’s core message that Americans should arm themselves, anti-gun groups felt NRATV was producing “<a href="https://momsdemandaction.org/moms-demand-action-everytown-launch-dumpnratv-campaign-calling-on-google-amazon-apple-atts-directv-and-roku-to-stop-streaming-nratv/">violence-inciting programming</a>.”</p>
<p>But companies like Roku felt the content <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/roku-rejects-calls-dump-nra-tv-channel-devices-224822058.html">had not violated their terms of service</a>. The #DumpNRATV campaign ultimately lost steam, but found a form of success when NRATV was later forced to suspend its operation over <a href="https://theconversation.com/financial-woes-are-at-the-heart-of-the-nras-tumult-116146">financial issues</a>. However, its videos <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/NRATV1/videos">still stream on YouTube</a> and Twitter.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1266231100780744704"}"></div></p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s social media presence also looms heavily over the debate about social network policies regarding violent content. Even as the president’s social media accounts have, at times, featured acts of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/17/politics/trump-tweet-clinton/index.html">physical harm done to others</a>, social networks have been reluctant to act. But that may be changing.</p>
<p>During the nationwide protests, President Trump recently tweeted, “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/05/29/trump-tweets-when-looting-starts-shooting-starts-extremists-will-respond">When the looting starts, the shooting starts</a>.” Twitter had evidently seen enough. The network placed a <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-05-29/twitter-adds-glorifying-violence-warning-to-trump-tweet">public notice on the tweet</a>, replacing it with the message that it had “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.” </p>
<p>Still, gun and shooting references continue to proliferate across the contentious political exchanges on social networks. For companies like Facebook and Twitter, incorporating guns into their policies that prohibit hate and violence is a risky prospect. Restrictions on gun talk could open the door to a maelstrom of criticism from gun lobbies, politicians, and Second Amendment advocates. But short of taking that political risk, social networks will have to design new algorithms to interpret the true meaning of hashtags like #GetYourGuns and #Shoot2Kill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam G. Klein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks say they are targeting hate, but they’re overlooking a major source of hateful content: gun talk.Adam G. Klein, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Pace University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1395272020-05-28T12:17:25Z2020-05-28T12:17:25ZPresident rages as Twitter labels White House disinformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338069/original/file-20200527-20229-1axn30o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C7%2C4892%2C3264&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A user looks at President Donald Trump's tweets, and the Twitter-appended notice suggesting users 'get the facts.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-illustration-photo-shows-an-editor-in-los-angeles-news-photo/1215361926">AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a landmark action, Twitter has for the first time <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/tech/twitter-trump-fact-check/index.html">attached independent fact-checking information</a> directly to two tweets from President Donald Trump. The president’s tweets make false claims alleging that wider use of mail in ballots will result in an increase in voter fraud.</p>
<p>This is far from the first time Trump has <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/27/18761360/donald-trump-twitter-policy-censorship-rules">posted falsehoods on Twitter</a>. But it is the first time the social media company has taken action against his account. </p>
<p>Twitter has removed tweets from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-twitter-deletes-giuliani-tweet-for-spreading-misinformation-2020-3?op=1">other politicians</a> and world leaders, including <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/03/30/twitter-removes-two-bolsonaro-tweets-questioning-virus-quarantine.html">Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro</a>. It frequently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-removes-gop-run-account-that-impersonated-democrat-11580498228">removes accounts that are deceptive</a> and spread disinformation. The company has also suspended notable accounts, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/a-pro-trump-blog-has-doxed-a-chinese-scientist-it-falsely">such as the controversial and hyperpartisan ZeroHedge blog</a>, for posting misinformation.</p>
<p>As a scholar who studies social media, it’s clear to me that the reason Twitter acted this time is that public outcry finally reached a level where the company had enough backing to check a president – but it still doesn’t have enough public support to delete a presidential tweet.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338068/original/file-20200527-20245-4p8lb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265255835124539392">Screenshot from Twitter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Setting some rules online</h2>
<p>Twitter has corporate policies laying out <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/notices-on-twitter">what it will and won’t do</a> about <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/public-interest">elected officials posting misinformation</a>, including showing warning information before displaying the tweet and posting accompanying notices. Those apply in this case, but it’s important to remember that the rules are written by the company.</p>
<p>Twitter was not forced into this situation: The company chose to allow governments and elected officials on its platform where there is <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/08/20/133614/twitter-advertising-disinformation-ban-voice-of-america-state-media-china-xinhua-protest/">inconsistent enforcement</a> of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/politics/trump-twitter-block/index.html">few rules</a> that exist to prevent government abuse.</p>
<p>I see Twitter’s latest action as a signal that the company fears public opinion more than it fears the president and his bully pulpit.</p>
<p>In response, Trump has taken aim at Twitter and is <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/trump-threatens-shut-down-twitter-dorsey-fact-check.html">threatening to regulate the corporation</a>, but, as is his usual style, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/23/trump-just-keeps-hitting-california-with-empty-threats/">he has not offered details</a> of what he would do, or how it would work.</p>
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<h2>Watching carefully</h2>
<p>Trump has come to depend on his Twitter feed as a way to circumvent the press and directly share his unfiltered thoughts with the public. Twitter’s action signals the company may step into the fray, changing the information he is sending to his followers.</p>
<p>The company is buying some time with this move, but the public is likely to keep a close eye on its actions as the presidential election approaches. After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Americans became much more aware of how loose the rules were for <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-russian-government-used-disinformation-and-cyber-warfare-in-2016-election-an-ethical-hacker-explains-99989">misinformation and propaganda on social media</a> – and are on the lookout for it from all potential sources, including the White House.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Grygiel owns a small number of shares in the following social media companies: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Alibaba, LinkedIn, YY and Snap. Grygiel also owns nominal amounts of the following cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.</span></em></p>When other posts have presented misinformation, the company simply removed the tweets, but Trump is being treated differently.Jennifer Grygiel, Assistant Professor of Communications (Social Media) & Magazine, News and Digital Journalism, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1377452020-05-13T12:39:36Z2020-05-13T12:39:36ZAmid pandemic, campaigning turns to the internet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334131/original/file-20200511-49579-rrao36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C14%2C1598%2C741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joe Biden's basement bookshelf has become a familiar background for his campaign videos.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-screengrab-from-joebiden-com-democratic-news-photo/1209520025">Photo by JoeBiden.com via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This feels like it could be the most revolutionary moment in U.S. campaign history: Candidates are robbed of the typical ways for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/us/politics/coronavirus-2020-campaign-events.html">connecting with supporters</a> and changing the hearts and minds of the voting public.</p>
<p>The coronavirus has ground the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Donald Trump to a near halt. <a href="https://www.theweek.com/speedreads/913484/trump-might-hold-2020-rallies-drivein-theaters">Public rallies aren’t happening</a>, and to follow social distancing guidelines, many of the campaigns’ local offices have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/thousands-of-candidates-reinventing-politics-on-the-fly-for-the-age-of-pandemic/2020/04/25/99d22368-863b-11ea-ae26-989cfce1c7c7_story.html">stopped bringing in volunteers</a> for phone banking or knocking on doors in local neighborhoods.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MlESf7IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I</a> have studied presidential campaigning since the 1996 election. In my book, <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731930.001.0001/acprof-9780199731930">“Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age</a>,” I document the ways that campaigns have evolved their campaign tactics to incorporate digital media. </p>
<p>For many years, political operatives have been perfecting their use of the internet’s vast array of social media platforms, websites and digital tools. They’ve identified effective strategies of digital communication with supporters and the press. </p>
<p>Now that traditional in-person campaigning has been severely limited, I believe campaigns will lean heavily on that digital experience, focusing in three areas: social media, campaign-specific mobile apps and paid advertising on social media. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CABksQ8AT6s","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent post from President Donald Trump’s Instagram account.</span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>An initial slowdown</h2>
<p>In general, political campaigns group voters into three categories: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hacking-the-electorate/C0D269F47449B042767A51EC512DD82E">supporters, opponents and a group in the middle</a>, sometimes called “persuadables,” who don’t have a strong connection to a political party or who aren’t that into politics. The members of this third group could be persuaded to vote for the candidate on Election Day.</p>
<p>The key function of a campaign is to identify supporters and mobilize them to be the workhorses for the cause: give money, volunteer, promote the candidate and – of course – vote. Campaigns also need to find and communicate to the persuadables, in hopes of getting their backing. And campaigns need to identify those who oppose their candidates, so they don’t waste time and money getting them to vote, which would only help the other side.</p>
<h2>Regrouping before the conventions</h2>
<p>There are natural slowdowns and lulls in the campaign season, including when the presumptive nominees are settled on, but before the party conventions make the nominations official – like now. </p>
<p>During these periods, the candidates reduce their activities aimed at the persuadables, like running TV ads. Instead, they reorganize their campaigns to complete the primary phase, and set up staffing and strategy for the general election.</p>
<p>During this time, the campaigns continue to engage with their supporters in hopes of amassing a large war chest and an army of volunteers to take on the opponent.</p>
<p>Campaigns also use this lull to expand their databases. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23723484?seq=1">Data about the public is as vital as money</a>. It’s not enough to know a supporter’s name and address: Understanding their likes, habits, political behavior and even psychological predispositions can give a deeper picture, letting campaigns identify people with similar characteristics as potential supporters. </p>
<p>That’s what the now-reviled campaign data analysis firm <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-targeting-model-really-worked-according-to-the-person-who-built-it-94078">Cambridge Analytica</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/595338116/what-did-cambridge-analytica-do-during-the-2016-election">promised to do</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, characterizing persuadables and opponents can help campaigns target their efforts efficiently. The Trump campaign identified opponents to his campaign to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-27/inside-the-trump-bunker-with-12-days-to-go">target them with ads meant to discourage them from voting</a>.</p>
<p>For the next few months, here are three things to watch.</p>
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<h2>Social media</h2>
<p>As I explain in my book, since 1996 the Democratic and Republican party machines have been honing their strategies of communicating through digital media. They use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat alongside YouTube, email and websites in an integrated communications system. </p>
<p>Even though the digital platforms allow easy two-way communication on blogs, forums and social media, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02865.x">that’s not what the campaigns are looking for</a>. They don’t want long, drawn-out policy debates on their pages. Instead, they want to use interactive elements of the internet to convert supporters and get them to give up data about themselves.</p>
<p>The social media accounts are the workhorses to cultivate supporters and draw them to the campaign’s website, which is home base. That’s where campaigns can <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/05/11/coronavirus-keeps-joe-biden-home-2020-campaign-rolls/5177329002/">deliver their most direct messages</a> and collect that valuable data about their supporters.</p>
<p>The campaigns use a tactic I call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02865.x">controlled interactivity</a>” on social media to entice followers to share information about themselves. On the campaigns’ official feeds, they post polls, hawk merchandise and push an endless stream of requests to sign up for email or to give money. Anytime someone interacts with one of those posts, the campaign gets a little bit more data. For example, Trump’s Facebook page features posts about his virtual events with “Team Trump.” A click on the “join” link goes to the campaign website, where visitors are asked to give up their personal information: name, address, phone number and email address. When they do, the campaign just got a new supporter to target.</p>
<h2>Mobile apps</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334133/original/file-20200511-31175-ibibx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Trump campaign has an app encouraging supporters to join the effort.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/app/">Official Trump 2020 App</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-team-launches-new-app-allowing-supporters-to-engage-with-the-campaign-from-their-couch">Trump</a> and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-campaign-ramps-up-digital-game-as-election-goes-virtual">Biden</a> have launched mobile applications for iOS and Android devices. It’s worth their campaigns’ money and effort because it can keep supporters energized, and collect more data. </p>
<p>Only supporters – and perhaps curious reporters and opponents’ campaign staff – will download and seriously use the app. Once downloaded, its function is to make supporters feel like an insider by giving them news and “inside looks” at the campaign, tools to donate money and opportunities to become local organizers. Trump’s app encourages users to “Become a Trump Team Leader” by registering voters and knocking on doors in their community.</p>
<p>Most of these political apps are also designed to help grow campaigns’ voter contact lists. Not only do they collect the user’s own contact information but they often seek to access the phone’s entire contact list. These apps may also <a href="https://ourdataourselves.tacticaltech.org/posts/campaign-apps">want access</a> to photos, the user’s social media accounts and location information.</p>
<p>All of this data gives campaigns more extensive pictures of who their most ardent supporters are. That helps them target others with similar characteristics, to bring them into the campaign fold.</p>
<h2>Paid ads</h2>
<p>On television, most ads target persuadables in an effort to influence how they think about the candidates. That’s because television ads do not allow for the degree of fine-grained or micro-targeted advertising that digital media ads provide. </p>
<p>TV ads blanket whole regions, while social media ads pinpoint-target specific people based on the desirable traits that the campaign is after – typically people who look like supporters. This is where all that data comes in. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google allow advertisers to create “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/465262276878947?id=401668390442328">look-alike</a>” campaigns, where the advertiser feeds the social media company the names and email addresses of known supporters. Then the company’s proprietary algorithms find the email addresses that match, analyze the known Facebook profiles for their interests and behaviors and then <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-lookalike-audiences/">find other users with similar likes, interests and behaviors</a>. </p>
<p>Those people get targeted with ads; if they click on the poll or buy a hat that’s advertised, the campaign grows its support base while also improving its data about who is likely to respond positively to future ads. Political watchers have even speculated that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/04/how-facebooks-ad-technology-helps-trump-win/606403/">this technique helped Trump win in 2016</a>.</p>
<p>With the conventions now postponed to the end of the summer, Trump and Biden have more time to grow their databases, their financial war chests and their supporter bases. </p>
<p>Although it may seem an unprecedented campaign season that the candidates were ill-equipped for, the truth is that digital campaigning has been well-honed over six election seasons. They just need to do more online than they had planned for.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Stromer-Galley receives funding from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. </span></em></p>For many years, political operatives have been perfecting their use of the internet’s vast array of social media platforms, websites and digital tools.Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Professor of Information Studies, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1322462020-03-27T12:15:58Z2020-03-27T12:15:58Z10 ways to spot online misinformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322704/original/file-20200324-155674-1jtlqcy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C22%2C7443%2C3985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When you share information online, do it responsibly.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/social-media-and-digital-online-concept-woman-using-royalty-free-image/1182866691">Sitthiphong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Propagandists are already working to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/russian-interference-trump-democrats.html">sow disinformation and social discord</a> in the run-up to the November elections. </p>
<p>Many of their efforts have focused on social media, where people’s limited attention spans push them to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/03/19/americans-read-headlines-and-not-much-else/">share items before even reading them</a> – in part because people <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-emotion-goes-viral-fastest-180950182/">react emotionally, not logically</a>, to information they come across. That’s especially true when the topic <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39589">confirms what a person already believes</a>.</p>
<p>It’s tempting to blame bots and trolls for these problems. But really <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559">it’s our own fault</a> for sharing so widely.
Research has confirmed that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-finally-know-for-sure-that-lies-spread-faster-than-the-truth-this-might-be-why/2018/03/14/92ab1aae-27a6-11e8-bc72-077aa4dab9ef_story.html">lies spread faster than truth</a> – mainly because lies are not bound to the same rules as truth.</p>
<p>As a psychological scientist who studies propaganda, here is what I tell my friends, students and colleagues about what to watch out for. That way, they can protect themselves – and each other – from lies, half-truths and misleading spins on current events.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rE3j_RHkqJc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Does this make you angry?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Did a post spark anger, disgust or fear?</h2>
<p>If something you see online causes intense feelings – especially if that emotion is outrage – that should be a red flag not to share it, at least not right away. Chances are it was intended to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc">short-circuit your critical thinking</a> by playing on your emotions. Don’t fall for it. </p>
<p>Instead, take a breath. </p>
<p>The story will still be there <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-disinformation-130767">after you verify it</a>. If it turns out to be real, and you still want to share it, you may also want to consider the fire you may be contributing to. Do you need to fan the flames? </p>
<p>During these unprecedented times we have to be careful about not contributing to <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/coronavirus-how-emotional-contagion-exacts-a-toll/">emotional contagions</a>. Ultimately, you are not in charge of alerting the public to breaking news, and you’re not in any race to share things before other people do.</p>
<h2>2. Did it make you feel good?</h2>
<p>A new tactic being adopted by misinformation warriors is to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/">post feel-good stories</a> that people will want to share. Those pieces may be true or may have as much truth as urban legends. But if lots of people share those posts, it lends legitimacy and credibility to the fake source accounts that originally post the items. Then those accounts are well positioned to share more malicious messages when they judge the time is right.</p>
<p>These same agents use other feel-good ploys as well, including attempts to play on your vanity or <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/04/david-mcraney-self-enchancement-bias/">inflated self-image</a>. You’ve probably seen posts saying “Only 1% of people are brave enough to share this” or “take this test to see if you are a genius.” Those aren’t benign clickbait – they’re often helping a fraudulent source get shares, build an audience, or in the case of those “personality quizzes” or “intelligence tests” they are trying to get access to your social media profile.</p>
<p>If you encounter a piece like this, if you can’t avoid clicking then just enjoy the good feeling it gives you and move on. Share your own stories rather than those of others.</p>
<h2>3. Is it hard to believe?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1030&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1030&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322706/original/file-20200324-155645-1t8r49s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1030&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carl Sagan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_Sagan_Planetary_Society.JPG">NASA/JPL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What you read may make some extraordinary claim – like the <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/did-the-pope-endorse-trump/">pope endorsing a U.S. presidential candidate</a> when he has never endorsed a candidate before. Astronomer and author Carl Sagan advocated for the response you should have to such claims: “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagan_standard">Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence</a>,” which is <a href="https://davidhume.org/texts/e/10">a longstanding philosophical premise</a>. Consider whether the claim you’re seeing was supported by any evidence at all – and then check that the quality of that evidence out.</p>
<p>Also, remember that a quirk of human psychology means that people only need to <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect/">hear something three times</a> before <a href="https://theconversation.com/unbelievable-news-read-it-again-and-you-might-think-its-true-69602">the brain starts</a> to <a href="https://doyouremember.com/64835/17-things-thought-true-actually-debunked-science">think it’s true</a> – even if it’s false.</p>
<h2>4. Did it confirm what you already thought?</h2>
<p>If you’re reading something that matches so well with what you had already thought, you might be inclined to say “Yep, that’s true” and share it widely. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/">differing perspectives get ignored</a>. </p>
<p>We are strongly motivated to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/belief-and-the-brain/201708/how-do-we-choose-our-news">confirm what we already believe</a> and avoid unpleasant feelings associated with challenges to our beliefs – especially strongly held beliefs. </p>
<p>It is important to <a href="https://www.allsides.com/rate-own-bias">identify and acknowledge your biases</a>, and take care to be extra critical of articles you agree with. Try seeking to prove them false rather than looking for confirmation they’re true. Be on the lookout because the algorithms are still set up to show you things they think you will like. Don’t be easy prey. <a href="https://www.allsides.com">Check out other perspectives</a>.</p>
<h2>5. Am it heard too reed?</h2>
<p>Posts that are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors are prime suspects for inaccuracies. If the person who wrote it couldn’t be bothered to spell-check it, they likely didn’t fact-check it either. In fact, they may be using those errors <a href="https://www.proedit.com/intentional-typos/">to get your attention</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, a post using multiple fonts could unintentionally reveal that it had material added to the original – or be trying to deliberately catch your eye. (Yes, the errors in the heading for this tip were intentional.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322705/original/file-20200324-155620-45d3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2005, Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch. The moment became a cultural touchstone – and the image became a meme.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tom-cruise-jumps-on-oprahs-couch">Know Your Meme</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>6. Was the post a meme?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-memes-of-all-time">Memes</a> are usually one or more images or short videos, often with text overlaid, that quickly convey a single idea.</p>
<p>While we may all enjoy a good laugh with a new “<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ermahgerd">Ermahgerd</a>” meme, memes – particularly those sowing political discord – have actually been identified as one of the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xyvwdk/meme-warfare">emerging mediums for propaganda</a>. In recent years, the practice of using memes to incite divisiveness has <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614572/political-war-memes-disinformation/">rapidly escalated</a>, and <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/04/meme-army-now-militia/">extremist groups</a> are using them with increasing effectiveness. </p>
<p>For example, white supremacist groups have commandeered the <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/pepe-the-frog">“Pepe the frog” meme</a>, a cartoonish image that may <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/do-you-have-white-teenage-sons-listen-up-how-white-supremacists-are-recruiting-boys-online/2019/09/17/f081e806-d3d5-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html">attract younger audiences</a>.</p>
<p>Their origins as benign, humorous images about grumpy cats, cats who want cheeseburgers or calls to “keep calm and carry on” have led our brains to classify memes as enjoyable or, at worse, harmless. Our guards are down. Plus their short nature further subverts critical thinking. Stay alert.</p>
<h2>7. What’s the source?</h2>
<p>Was the post from an unreliable media outlet? The <a href="https://mediabiasfactcheck.com">Media Bias/Fact Check website</a> is one place to look to find out whether a particular news source has a partisan bias. You can also <a href="https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/how-to-spot-types-of-media-bias">assess the source yourself</a>. Use research-based criteria to judge the quality and balance of the evidence presented. For instance, if an article expresses an opinion, it may present facts slanted in a way favorable to that opinion, rather than <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2015.1023959">fairly presenting all the evidence</a> and drawing a conclusion.</p>
<p>If you find that you’re looking at a suspect site, but the specific article seems accurate, my strong suggestion is to find another credible source for the same information, and share that link instead. When you share something, social media and search-engine algorithms <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-algorithm/">count your sharing as a vote</a> for the overall site’s credibility. So don’t help misinformation sites take advantage of your reputation as a cautious and careful sharer of reliable information.</p>
<h2>8. Who said it?</h2>
<p>It may be surprising, but politicians and other public figures don’t always tell the truth. It may be accurate that a particular person said a particular sentence, but that doesn’t mean the sentence is correct. You can double-check the alleged fact, of course, but you can also see <a href="https://www.politifact.com/personalities/">how truthful particular people are</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re hearing information from a friend, of course, there’s no website. You’ll have to rely on <a href="https://libguides.uwlax.edu/evaluating">old-fashioned critical thinking</a> to evaluate what she says. Is she credible? Does she even have sources? If so, how reliable are those sources? If evaluating the message is too much work, maybe just stick with the “like” button and skip the “share.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RL-CHyzgK1Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Learn about the Media Bias Chart.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>9. Is there a hidden agenda?</h2>
<p>If you find something that seems compelling and true, check out what nonpartisan sources say on the subject. For a view of media outlets’ perspectives, take a look at the <a href="https://www.adfontesmedia.com/?v=402f03a963ba">Media Bias Chart</a>. </p>
<p>Finding no mention of the topic in nonpartisan media may suggest the statement or anecdote is just a talking point for one side or the other. At minimum, ask yourself why the source chose to write or share that piece. Was it an effort to report and explain things as they were happening, or an attempt to influence your thinking or actions – or your vote?</p>
<h2>10. Have you checked the facts?</h2>
<p>There are a lot of reputable fact-checking organizations, like <a href="https://www.snopes.com/">Snopes</a> and <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/">FactCheck</a>. There is even a dedicated <a href="http://memepoliceman.com/">meme-checking site</a>. It doesn’t take long to click over to one of those sites and take a look. </p>
<p>But it can take a very long time to undo the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.045">harm of sharing misinformation</a>, which can reduce people’s ability to trust evidence and their fellow humans.</p>
<p>To protect yourself – and those in your social and professional networks – be vigilant. Don’t share anything unless you’re sure it’s true. Misinformation warriors are trying to divide American society. Don’t help them. Share wisely.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colleen Sinclair receives funding from the Department of Defense.</span></em></p>Here’s what to watch out for, so you can protect yourself – and your social circles – from lies, half-truths and misleading spins on current events.H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Mississippi State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1292122020-03-20T12:08:51Z2020-03-20T12:08:51ZThe battle against disinformation is global<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318165/original/file-20200302-18266-1a1jl9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C22%2C3004%2C1969&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On the internet, anyone can express their views, like they can in Speakers' Corner in London – it's up to the audience to guard against disinformation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-orator-addressing-passers-by-at-speakers-corner-hyde-news-photo/3312594?adppopup=true">J. A. Hampton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disinformation-spewing online bots and trolls from halfway around the world are continuing to <a href="https://www.ned.org/issue-brief-how-disinformation-impacts-politics-and-publics/">shape local and national debates</a> by spreading lies online on a massive scale. In 2019, Russia <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/01/05/russia-has-been-meddling-in-foreign-elections-for-decades-has-it-made-a-difference/">used Facebook to intervene</a> in the internal politics of eight African nations.</p>
<p>Russia has a long <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/factory-lies-russia-s-disinformation-playbook-exposed-n910316">history</a> of using disinformation campaigns to undermine opponents – even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/opinion/russia-meddling-disinformation-fake-news-elections.html">hoodwinking CBS News anchor Dan Rather</a> back in 1987 into saying that U.S. biological warfare experiments <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-09-ss-592-story.html">sparked the AIDS epidemic</a>. </p>
<p>One group of researchers identified <a href="https://doi.org/10.5683/SP/BYRQQS">Russian interference in 27 elections</a> around the world, from 1991 to 2017. It <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/did-russia-affect-the-2016-election-its-now-undeniable/">interfered</a> in the 2016 U.S. elections, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/30/facebook-russia-fake-accounts-126-million">reaching more than 126 million Americans</a> on Facebook alone. Russia is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/08/bipartisan-senate-report-calls-sweeping-effort-prevent-russian-interference-election/">almost certainly</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/after-a-congressional-briefing-on-election-threats-trump-soured-on-acting-spy-chief/2020/02/20/1ed2b4ec-53f1-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html">already</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/bernie-sanders-briefed-by-us-officials-that-russia-is-trying-to-help-his-presidential-campaign/2020/02/21/5ad396a6-54bd-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html">doing so</a> again in 2020.</p>
<p>But Russia is not alone: From the end of World War II to the year 2000, scholars have documented <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqv016">116 attempts to influence elections</a> – 80 of them by the United States. </p>
<p>Nations around the world, including the United States, have to decide how to <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/">react</a>. There is no shortage of experimentation, with new laws and codes of conduct, and even efforts to cut off internet access entirely – and that was before misinformation regarding the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/16/21182726/coronavirus-covid-19-facebook-google-twitter-youtube-joint-effort-misinformation-fraud">COVID-19 pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.law.indiana.edu/about/people/bio.php?name=shackelford-scott-j">scholar</a> of cybersecurity policy, I have been reviewing the efforts of nations around the world to protect their citizens from foreign interference, while protecting free speech, an example of which is being <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3548670">published</a> by the Washington and Lee Law Review.</p>
<p>There is no perfect approach, given the different cultural and legal traditions in play. But there’s plenty to learn and use to diminish outsiders’ ability to hack U.S. democracy. </p>
<p><iframe id="ZiVjU" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ZiVjU/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Europe</h2>
<p>The European Union has been a target of Russian efforts to undermine stability and trust in democratic institutions including elections across Europe. </p>
<p>Disinformation was rampant across Europe in 2019, including in the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/europes-elections-fight-against-disinformation">Netherlands</a> and the U.K., prompting the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-48356351">closing</a> of far-right Facebook groups for spreading “fake news and polarizing content.”</p>
<p>This has been repeated elsewhere in Europe, such as Spain, where Facebook – again <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/25/facebook-takes-down-far-right-groups-days-before-spanish-election">under pressure</a> from the authorities and civil society groups – closed down far-right groups’ Facebook pages days ahead of their parliamentary elections in April 2019.</p>
<p>The disinformation efforts go beyond Facebook and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/world/europe/elections-disinformation-social-media.html">manipulated Twitter feeds</a>, when Twitter handles are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/world/europe/factcheck-uk-conservative-party.html">renamed</a> by hackers to mislead followers. A growing aspect of multiple disinformation is how artificial intelligence can create manipulated videos that look real, which are called <a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/01/business/pentagons-race-against-deepfakes/">deepfakes</a>.</p>
<p>Not all of this interference is foreign, though – political parties across Europe and around the world are learning disinformation tactics and are deploying it in their own countries to meet their own goals. Both the Labour and Conservative parties in the U.K. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/world/europe/elections-disinformation-social-media.html">engaged</a> in these tactics in late 2019, for example.</p>
<p>In response, the EU is <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/europes-elections-fight-against-disinformation">spending more</a> money on combating disinformation across the board by hiring new staff with expertise in data mining and analytics to respond to complaints and proactively detect disinformation. It is working to get member countries to share share information more readily, and has built a system that provides nations with <a href="https://theconversation.com/busting-russias-fake-news-the-european-union-way-93712">real-time alerts of disinformation campaigns</a>. It is unclear if the U.K. will be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/world/europe/uk-election-brexit.html">participating</a> in these activities post-Brexit. </p>
<p>The EU also seems to be losing patience with Silicon Valley. It pressured social media giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter to sign the <a href="https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-19-2570_en.htm">Code of Practice on Disinformation</a> in 2018. This initiative is the first time that the tech industry has <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/code-practice-disinformation">agreed</a> “to self-regulatory standards to fight disinformation.” Among other provisions, the code requires signatories to cull fake accounts, and to report monthly on their efforts to increase transparency for political ads. </p>
<p>In response, these firms have <a href="https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-19-2570_en.htm">set up</a> “searchable political-ad databases” and have begun to take down “disruptive, misleading or false” information from their platforms. But the code is not binding, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/world/europe/europe-russian-disinformation-propaganda-elections.html">naming and shaming violators</a> does not guarantee better behavior in the future.</p>
<p>At the national level, France has taken a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/france-plans-revolution-rein-kings-tech/">leading role</a> in taxing tech giants to reign in the power of tech firms including how they are used to spread disinformation, prompting threats of retaliatory tariffs from the Trump administration. But this may just be a “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/france-plans-revolution-rein-kings-tech/">warmup</a>” to more ambitious actions designed to help protect both competition and democracy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318938/original/file-20200305-106629-vu9p6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Indian police officer inspects a damaged vehicle from which two men were taken and lynched by a mob afraid of strangers in their area because of misinformation spread on WhatsApp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photo-taken-on-july-10-2018-shows-gulshan-daolagupu-news-photo/998301190?adppopup=true">Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Asia</h2>
<p>Democracies across Asia are also dealing with disinformation. </p>
<p>In Indonesia, for example, President Joko Widodo spearheaded the creation of the new National Cyber and Encryption Agency to <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/#indonesia">combat disinformation</a> in their elections. One example was in June 2019, when a member of the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3016569/indonesian-cyber-jihadist-arrested-spreading-fake-news-and">Muslim Cyber Army was arrested in Java</a> for posting misinformation that implied that the Indonesian government was being controlled by China. </p>
<p>Like Indonesia, Malaysia has also <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/#malaysia">criminalized</a> the sharing of misinformation. <a href="https://www.globalgroundmedia.com/2019/04/23/tactics-to-fight-disinformation-in-thailand-indonesia-japan-the-philippines-and-india/">Myanmar</a> and Thailand have leaned on law enforcement actions by arresting people who they argue are behind disinformation campaigns to curtail misinformation, which have been abused in some cases to silence critics of <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/#myanmar">public corruption</a>.</p>
<p>The problem of disinformation in India is so severe that it has been likened by some commentators to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/opinion/india-elections-disinformation.html">public health crisis</a>. One <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-digital-civility-index-safer-internet-day-2019/"> Microsoft study</a>, for example, found that 64% of Indians encountered disinformation online in 2019, which was the highest proportion among 22 surveyed countries. </p>
<p>Not only have these incidents affected elections in India such as by spreading false information about candidates on WhatsApp, but they have led to <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/69-mob-attacks-on-child-lifting-rumours-since-jan-17-only-one-before-that-118070900081_1.html">real-world harm</a>, including at least 33 deaths and 69 instances of mob violence following kidnapping allegations. </p>
<p>In response, the Indian government has <a href="https://scroll.in/article/947880/in-charts-india-shut-down-the-internet-than-100-times-in-2019">shut down</a> the internet more than 100 times over the past year, and has proposed laws that would give it largely unchecked surveillance powers, mirroring Chinese-style internet <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/technology/india-internet-censorship.html">censorship</a>. </p>
<h2>Australia and New Zealand</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318426/original/file-20200303-66099-sto9ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Superman is not coming to defend ‘truth, justice and the American way’ from disinformation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/superman-played-by-american-actor-christopher-reeve-holds-a-news-photo/166979319">Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia and New Zealand have also been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/australian-intelligence-china-behind-parliament-election-hack-report-2019-9">targets of online</a> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/64991ca6-9796-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b">influence campaigns</a> – not from Russia, but from China. In response, Australia has enacted a new law to ban foreign interference in Australia’s elections, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/world/australia/china-spying-wang-liqiang-nick-zhao.html">enforcement</a> has been lacking. </p>
<p>New Zealand has taken on a more global leadership role in combating this problem. In partnership with France, New Zealand’s Christchurch Call to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online has <a href="https://www.christchurchcall.com/supporters.html">more than 50 nations</a> supporting its goal of stopping the spread of violent extremism online and banning foreign political <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/03/new-zealand-bans-foreign-political-donations-amid-interference-concerns">donations</a>. Although not necessarily disinformation, such content can similarly widen fissures in democratic societies and disrupt elections.</p>
<h2>Making cyberspace safe for democracy</h2>
<p>Groups within the U.S. and outside it have long sought to exploit domestic divisions like inequality and injustice. This is a global issue, demanding action from both advanced and emerging democracies.</p>
<p>The U.S., for example, could take a <a href="https://www.csis.org/coming-together-fight-fake-news-lessons-european-approach-disinformation">wider view</a> of combating disinformation, featuring three parts. </p>
<p>First, more integration of disparate efforts is vital. That does not mean establishing an independent agency (as in Indonesia), for example, or focusing tenaciously on censorship and surveillance (as in India), but it could mean the current Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/technology/justice-department-tech-antitrust.html">investigations</a> into tech giants including Facebook should include disinformation as one focus. </p>
<p>Second, social media firms – including Facebook – could agree to comply by the EU Code for Disinformation globally, as some are already doing with the EU’s <a href="https://iapp.org/resources/article/top-10-operational-impacts-of-the-gdpr/">data privacy</a> regulations.</p>
<p>Third, media literacy and education is imperative to help inoculate citizens against disinformation. <a href="https://securityintelligence.com/from-naughty-to-nice-best-practices-for-k-12-cybersecurity-education/">Educational reforms</a> are urgently needed to help students recognize disinformation when they see it, a topic all the more important given the rise of <a href="https://www.csoonline.com/article/3293002/deepfake-videos-how-and-why-they-work.html">deepfakes</a>. </p>
<p>In short, by working together and taking these threats seriously, we might even be able to find a way that – despite the challenges – democracy can persist even in a hyperconnected future. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Shackelford is a principal investigator on grants from the Hewlett Foundation, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, and the Microsoft Corporation supporting both the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance and the Indiana University Cybersecurity Clinic.</span></em></p>A scholar who has reviewed the efforts of nations around the world to protect their citizens from foreign interference says there is no magic solution, but there’s plenty to learn and do.Scott Shackelford, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance; Cybersecurity Program Chair, IU-Bloomington, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1307672020-02-26T14:02:08Z2020-02-26T14:02:08Z4 ways to protect yourself from disinformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316660/original/file-20200221-92507-195ans7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C150%2C7692%2C4453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can you tell the news from the noise?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-people-screaming-megaphones-scared-guy-645904165">pathdoc/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You might have fallen for someone’s attempt to disinform you about current events. But it’s not your fault. </p>
<p>Even the most well-intentioned news consumers can find today’s avalanche of political information difficult to navigate. With so much news available, many people consume media in an automatic, unconscious state – similar to knowing you drove home but <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-mishaps/201404/the-dangers-going-autopilot">not being able to recall</a> the trip.</p>
<p>And that makes you more susceptible to accepting false claims.</p>
<p>But, as the 2020 elections near, you can develop habits to exert more conscious control over your news intake. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7cJhUEkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I teach</a> these strategies to students in a course on media literacy, helping people become more savvy news consumers in four simple steps. </p>
<h2>1. Seek out your own political news</h2>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/cb267c9c0acf32dd40a64177b9c53136">Like most people</a>, you probably get a fair amount of your news from apps, sites and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Apple News and Google. You should change that.</p>
<p>These are technology companies – not news outlets. Their goal is to <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-quit-facebook-but-dont-trust-it-either-93776">maximize the time you spend on their sites</a> and apps, generating advertising revenue. To that end, their algorithms use your browsing history to show you news you’ll agree with and like, keeping you engaged for as long as possible.</p>
<p>That means instead of presenting you with the most important news of the day, social media feed you what they think will hold your attention. Most often, that is <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-algorithm-changes-suppressed-journalism-and-meddled-with-democracy-119446">algorithmically filtered</a> and may deliver politically biased information, <a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148">outright falsehoods</a> or material that you have seen before.</p>
<p>Instead, regularly visit <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/berlinschoolofcreativeleadership/2017/02/01/10-journalism-brands-where-you-will-find-real-facts-rather-than-alternative-facts/">trusted news apps and news websites</a> directly. These organizations actually produce news, usually in the spirit of serving the public interest. There, you’ll see a more complete range of political information, not just content that’s been curated for you.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316629/original/file-20200221-92502-1lj4407.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If there are numbers, check the math yourself.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/math-simple-equation-on-chalk-board-113762158">Picsfive/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Use basic math</h2>
<p>Untrustworthy news and political campaigns often use statistics to make bogus claims – rightfully assuming most readers won’t take the time to fact-check them. </p>
<p>Simple mathematical calculations, which scholars call <a href="https://brilliant.org/wiki/fermi-estimate/">Fermi estimates</a> or rough guesstimates, can help you better spot falsified data.</p>
<p>For instance, a widely circulated meme falsely claimed <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/immigrant-homicides-us/">10,150 Americans were “killed by illegal immigrants” in 2018</a>. On the surface, it’s hard to know how to verify or debunk that, but one way to start is to think about finding out how many total murders there were in the U.S. in 2018.</p>
<p>Murder statistics can be found in, among other places, the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr/">FBI’s statistics on violent crime</a>. They estimate that in 2018 there were <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/murder">16,214 murders</a> in the U.S. If the meme’s figure were accurate, it would mean that nearly two-thirds of U.S. murders were committed by the “illegal immigrants” the meme alleged.</p>
<p>Next, find out how many people were living in the U.S. illegally. That group, most news reports and estimates suggest, numbers <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/">about 11 million</a> men, women and children – which is only 3% of the country’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/popclock/">330 million people</a>. </p>
<p>Just 3% of people committed 60% of U.S. murders? With a tiny bit of research and quick math, you can see these numbers just don’t add up.</p>
<h2>3. Beware of nonpolitical biases</h2>
<p>News media are often accused of catering to people’s political biases, favoring either liberal or conservative points of view. But disinformation campaigns exploit less obvious cognitive biases as well. For example, humans are biased to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/cognitive-bias/565775/">underestimate costs or look for information that confirms what they already believe</a>. One important bias of news audiences is a preference for simple soundbites, which often fail to capture the complexity of important problems. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.09398">Research</a> has found that intentionally fake news stories are more likely to use <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.09398">short, nontechnical and redundant language</a> than accurate journalistic stories.</p>
<p>Also beware of the human tendency to believe what’s in front of your eyes. Video content is perceived as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1077699018785890">more trustworthy</a> – even though <a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/01/business/pentagons-race-against-deepfakes/">deepfake videos</a> can be very deceiving. Think critically about how you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-019-00068-5">determine something is accurate</a>. Seeing – and hearing – should not necessarily be believing. Treat video content with just as much skepticism as news text and memes, verifying any facts with news from a trusted source.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cQ54GDm1eL0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">You won’t – and shouldn’t – believe what Barack Obama says in this video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Think beyond the presidency</h2>
<p>A final bias of news consumers and, as a result, news organizations has been a shift toward <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000965">prioritizing national news</a> at the expense of local and international issues. Leadership in the White House is certainly important, but national news is only one of four categories of information you need this election season.</p>
<p>Informed voters understand and connect issues across four levels: personal interests – like a local sports team or health care costs, news in their local communities, national politics and international affairs. Knowing a little in each of <a href="https://archives.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php">these areas</a> better equips you to evaluate claims about all the others. </p>
<p>For example, better understanding trade negotiations with China could provide insight into why workers at a nearby manufacturing plant are picketing, which could subsequently affect the prices you pay for local goods and services.</p>
<p>Big businesses and powerful disinformation campaigns heavily influence the information you see, creating personal and convincing false narratives. It’s not your fault for getting duped, but being conscious of these processes can put you back in control.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Stoycheff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the 2020 elections near and disinformation campaigns ramp up, an expert on media literacy offers advice you can use to develop habits to exert more conscious control over your news intake.Elizabeth Stoycheff, Associate Professor of Communication, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1307412020-02-24T13:46:46Z2020-02-24T13:46:46ZAlbania’s plan against disinformation lets Facebook and powerful politicians off the hook<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314567/original/file-20200210-109916-h6q4co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C3894%2C2891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama uses social media as a way to reach constituents directly.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/albanian-prime-minister-edi-rama-speaks-at-a-joint-press-news-photo/1198473674?adppopup=true">Zhang Liyun/Xinhua via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new set of laws in Albania empowers a government agency to review citizen complaints about online news websites. If a site is found to have published untrue information, official regulators can fine the site’s owners and demand that they issue retractions. Informally called the “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-albania-media-law/albania-passes-anti-slander-law-despite-media-protest-calling-it-censorship-idUSKBN1YM2HS">anti-defamation package</a>,” the laws followed a year of heated public and legislative debate about how to create rules that would limit the spread of disinformation campaigns.</p>
<p>There has been much confusion about what exactly might constitute an infringement under the rules, and who should decide this. Earlier versions of the laws referred to online content that damaged society and the dignity of individuals. <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2019/12/18/albania-approves-controversial-media-laws-amidst-protests/">Critics worry</a> that this vagueness is intentional, allowing appointed regulators to decide what counts as disinformation.</p>
<p>The controversy comes as the country marks, this year, 30 years since its emergence from one of Europe’s most repressive dictatorships, which I <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501714153/from-stalin-to-mao/">studied in my first book</a>. During that era, censors tried to control foreign news and literature – even television signals from abroad. This latest debate illustrates how complicated the transition to political pluralism has been, providing a useful look at a country struggling with whether, and how, to regulate online information. </p>
<p>Crucially, however, the laws target online media outlets with their own websites – not social media platforms, which is where a lot of disinformation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/technology/twitter-disinformation-united-states-russia.html">finds its audience</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="wqUBe" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/wqUBe/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>A matter of free speech and control</h2>
<p>The dispute is not just about disinformation, but about media freedom more broadly. Prime Minister Edi Rama, a sharp-tongued artist-turned-politician, has lambasted journalists and news websites, referring to them as “<a href="https://cpj.org/blog/2019/07/albania-journalists-threatened-attacked-corruption-politics-organized-crime.php">kazan</a>,” a word typically used in Albanian to refer to a trashcan. The local media landscape, he has complained, is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svz66Tle1UA">a jungle of slaves</a>.”</p>
<p>A small number of powerful entrepreneurs own most of the big television stations and newspapers in the country. They have routinely served the interests of the two main parties, which have dominated domestic politics for the past 30 years. However, large numbers of local news and commentary sites have arisen in recent years – more than 600 of them, <a href="https://www.oranews.tv/article/ne-shqiperi-650-portale-lajmesh-cipa-nje-pjese-drejtohen-nga-gazetare">according to some reports</a>, serving a population under 3 million people. With <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48763803">hotly contested elections</a>, the influence of these smaller outlets is a potential threat to the ruling elite.</p>
<p>Journalists in Albania, and <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/news-2019/-/asset_publisher/Arb4fRK3o8Cf/content/commissioner-urges-albania-s-parliament-to-review-bills-which-restrict-freedom-of-expression">free-press advocates in Europe</a>, have expressed concern that the laws could restrict media freedom, and even empower officials to target critics of the government. Critics also warn the laws could discourage investigations into <a href="https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/bild-exklusiv-abhoerprotokolle-der-ermittler-wie-die-mafia-in-albanien-wahlen-ma-62395878.bild.html">corruption scandals like those</a> revealed last year by the German tabloid newspaper Bild. </p>
<p>Journalists have also pointed out that the laws effectively serve to protect politicians – who in Albania are notorious for making outlandish accusations against each other – while potentially <a href="https://cpj.org/2019/12/albanian-media-legislation-threatens-to-restrict-o.php">restricting speech for less powerful groups</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, the country’s president <a href="https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/443719">pushed back</a> against the laws, returning them to parliament for review. He criticized them for being incompatible with international standards. And since the president and the prime minister have been locked in a political battle for a while, disinformation has turned into a battleground. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1044868554653339649"}"></div></p>
<h2>The social media prime minister</h2>
<p>A desire to prioritize politicians’ free speech may also be behind the laws’ glaring omission: They focus on news websites, but don’t touch social media at all.</p>
<p>Rama, the prime minister, regularly broadcasts live on what he calls “<a href="https://twitter.com/ediramaal/status/1044868554653339649">ERTV</a>,” after his initials, on Facebook and Twitter. It was a major channel of political communication during the most recent parliamentary elections in 2017. The government agency that would regulate media websites does not, however, cover <a href="https://exit.al/en/2018/06/02/pm-edi-ramas-tv-channel-unchecked-by-audiovisual-media-authority/">Rama’s social media channel</a>.</p>
<p>There are other problems with the laws: Though they were <a href="https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/425462">scaled back</a> <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2018/12/26/rights-organizations-criticize-albania-prime-minister-push-for-online-media-disciplining-12-26-2018/">from more draconian</a> <a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/four-ngos-urge-albania-drop-proposed-online-media-legislation">original drafts</a>, steep fines remain, as does a provision for the government to censor content it deems threatening “<a href="https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/441500">national security</a>.” </p>
<p>The special council that will evaluate complaints and issue fines raises questions too: Board members at the media regulator serve at the discretion of the major political parties, and can therefore be subject to outside pressure. On the other hand, corruption has been common in Albanian courts, with large numbers of judges and prosecutors <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/229a8600-8dd5-11e9-a1c1-51bf8f989972">failing to pass assets and ethics screenings</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314572/original/file-20200210-109930-ydvume.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified before Congress, but social media regulations in the U.S. remain elusive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Congress-Facebook-Zuckerberg/5098a638c79b40ad875bba53899ebc00/29/0">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to fight disinformation?</h2>
<p>Advocates outside Albania had some success at making the laws less restrictive, showing how international pressure can work in certain contexts. At the same time, Western influence may not work for long, as the U.S. and the European Union are seen as unwilling <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/inside-story-facebook-fight-against-european-regulation/">to stand up to the social media giants</a> and as the problem of disinformation persists. </p>
<p>Other European countries that have engaged to fight disinformation, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/countering-russian-disinformation-the-baltic-nations-way-109366">the Baltic states</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/europe/finland-fake-news-intl/">Finland</a>, have focused on investing in cyberdefense tools and in teaching news consumers to spot falsehoods.</p>
<p>A similar approach could benefit countries like Albania, which has one of the <a href="https://osis.bg/?p=3356&lang=en">lowest media literacy scores in Europe</a>. Other Balkan countries also have low media literacy rates, making them <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/16/world/europe/macedonia-referendum-russia-nato.html">particularly vulnerable</a> to disinformation campaigns. </p>
<p>But selective regulation can be politically more useful in the short term. And so Albania has chosen to target smaller outlets while letting politicians and social media off the hook – supposedly in the name of countering disinformation.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elidor Mehilli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New laws in Albania show one approach to dealing with disinformation – and highlight some pitfalls of selective regulation.Elidor Mehilli, Associate Professor of History, Hunter CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1274312019-11-28T19:09:23Z2019-11-28T19:09:23ZOn the Battle of Seattle’s 20th anniversary, let’s remember the Aussie coders who created live sharing<p>Twenty years ago, a group of Australian activists invented open source online publishing, by creating a website that went on to be pivotal in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-LfN3V3id8">Battle of Seattle</a> protests. </p>
<p>The violent clash, which took place on November 30, 1999, between anti-globalisation activists and Seattle police, caught the world’s attention. It was also the first large-scale use of technology that allowed anyone to upload stories, photos, and video in a live feed to a website.</p>
<p>Today, online publishing allows multiple people to post text and multimedia content simultaneously to websites in real time, and have others comment on posts. </p>
<p>But this format, used on sites like Facebook and Twitter, was first conceptualised, coded and adopted by a handful of Sydney-based activists back in the 1990s. </p>
<p>These individuals were pioneers in kickstarting the digital disruption of mainstream media, and their actions enabled the world to openly and easily share content online.</p>
<h2>Street-based activism</h2>
<p>Just days before the events in Seattle, two software programmers, Matthew Arnison in Sydney and Manse Jacobi in Colorado, posted a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141203013029/http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/1999/11/2.shtml">message</a> on indymedia.org, a new website they had developed. </p>
<p>It read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The resistance is global… a trans-pacific collaboration has brought this web site into existence. The web dramatically alters the balance between multinational and activist media.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Seattle Independent Media Centre (Indymedia) website coordinated the protest and allowed reporters to share events to the world, live. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=78&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=78&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=78&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=98&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=98&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304163/original/file-20191127-176624-1sh78q1.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=98&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original Indymedia logo used on the website in 1999, in all its 90s low-pixel glory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Arnison</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The site received 1.5 million hits that week. Arnison had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZptFu7DC64">created a movement</a>. </p>
<h2>The lead-up</h2>
<p>Indymedia’s model was developed by activists in Sydney, several months before it went live on November 30 from a small shopfront in Seattle.</p>
<p>Activist collectives Reclaim the Street and Critical Mass <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230437836">regularly took over public spaces</a> in Sydney during the 1990s.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304220/original/file-20191128-178083-hxh3ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Reclaim the Streets protest on November 6, 1999, at the corner of King and Wilson streets at Newtown, Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Private collection)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was the protest-related needs of these collectives that spurred coders’ efforts to find solutions. Programmers including Arnison began writing code that allowed the sharing of stories, images, and live webcasting.</p>
<p>They built a website (<a href="https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20020524154900/http://j18.cat.org.au/">j18.cat.org.au/</a>) to allow global coordination and sharing of live video – what Arnison at the time called “<a href="http://purplebark.net/maffew/cat/imc-rave.html">frozen media nuggets</a>”.</p>
<p>When the adapted and fine-tuned model went live in Seattle on November 30, word got out. </p>
<p>Wired Magazine <a href="https://www.wired.com/1999/11/taking-media-to-the-wto-streets/">covered a scene</a> that foreshadowed the digital newsrooms of today. Arnison and his colleagues had created the first <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20000818021603/http:/www.active.org.au/sydney/">open sharing internet platform</a>. </p>
<p>Arnison told me that before then, “it was very difficult to share photos and post text and stories online, it was impossible to do in real time and without technical skill and special type of access”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/death-on-smartphones-in-a-world-of-live-streamed-tragedy-what-do-we-gain-62769">Death on smartphones: in a world of live streamed tragedy, what do we gain?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mg9DxvfZE">Imagine a world</a> where sharing a photo or a story online required complex computer skills and often took up to a day. And a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e3HXrDm8sw">Kids Guide to the Internet</a>” (in VHS) was required for “all that cybernet stuff”. </p>
<h2>The start of Active Sydney</h2>
<p>Arnison was also part of the groups Community Activist Technology (CAT) and Active Sydney, which prompted the development of software code that let people upload multimedia media stories, links, photos, video or sound material anywhere, anytime, to go live.</p>
<p>In January 1999, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20000511092436/http:/www.active.org.au:80/">Active Sydney</a> website was launched. </p>
<p>Active Sydney inspired the Seattle site in the way it created an online space for activists to share information about events and actions, using open source code that Arnison made available to anyone around the world wishing to do the same.</p>
<p>Sydney resident and cofounder Gabrielle Kuiper described the site at an Amsterdam conference in March that year as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>…an online interactive forum for information and inspiration about social change in Sydney… It’s the only website which is linked to an email list operating at a city scale.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Political motives</h2>
<p>These days we’re used to the idea of information as a commodity owned and exploited by global online corporations. </p>
<p>In the pioneering days of the internet, the beginnings of data commercialisation existed alongside the notion that “information wants to be free”. Hackers and cyberpunks created open source software that enabled the free flow of online content.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://purplebark.net/maffew/cat/openpub.html">post</a> written just two months after Wikipedia went live in 2001, Arnison said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Open publishing is the same as free software. They’re both (r)evolutionary responses to the privatisation of information by multinational monopolies. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Looking back <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/global-rebellions-inequality/">today</a>, this seems ironic. But in 1999 there was a feeling that information and self-expression would tip the scales towards protesters.</p>
<p>Arnison notes there’s “a different type of asymmetry” at play now. He echoed theorist <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3056-capital-is-dead">McKenzie Wark</a> by saying that in today’s world, political economies rely on the asymmetry of information as a form of control.</p>
<p>Twenty years after the Seattle clashes, the roles of protester and politician are reversed. </p>
<p>In 1999, protesters used new online tools to challenge free trade. They deployed a form of citizen journalism that countered mainstream reporting, in a bid to share and obtain authentic messages.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-punishing-of-anonymous-11824">The Punishing of Anonymous</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Today, populist politicians want to be perceived as authentic, so they use live platforms like Twitter to get messages out directly and avoid the filter of mainstream media. </p>
<p>Back then, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-globalization_movement">protesters challenged</a> world leaders beholden to the decision-making power of multinational free trading bodies. Now, some leaders seek to exit large trading blocks and pursue nationalist trade wars.</p>
<h2>What we didn’t see coming</h2>
<p>When Arnison spoke to me, he noted that one thing early activist communities didn’t predict was the proliferation of online trolling and hate speech. </p>
<p>Hateful and toxic posts were rare in those eventful early days, when a core activity drove content sharing. </p>
<p>Kuiper said at the time they “had no problems with people writing inappropriate or even boring news”. </p>
<p>“Twenty years ago we didn’t envisage how (the internet) could be corporatised or how personal data could be monetised,” she said.</p>
<p>Perhaps the internet will continue to mature and flip on its head yet again. </p>
<p>Arnison hopes so: “I am hoping … there will be a third stage … where we figure out how to manage that toxic behaviour which made this network so wonderful in the first place.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-facebook-and-google-changed-the-advertising-game-70050">How Facebook and Google changed the advertising game</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Sear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1999, ahead of World Trade Organisation protests, a group of Australian activists created the first open internet publishing platform. This technology is the basis of the internet we know today.Tom Sear, Industry Fellow, UNSW Canberra Cyber, Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1243772019-11-27T13:46:56Z2019-11-27T13:46:56ZYou can join the effort to expose Twitter bots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300508/original/file-20191106-12487-2cyp4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8192%2C6144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Help catch online bots.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chained-robot-concept-209367331">maxuser/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, more than 10,000 automated Twitter accounts got caught conducting a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-twitter-exclusive/exclusive-twitter-deletes-over-10000-accounts-that-sought-to-discourage-u-s-voting-idUSKCN1N72FA">coordinated campaign of tweets to discourage people from voting</a>. These automated accounts may seem authentic to some, but a tool called <a href="https://botometer.iuni.iu.edu/">Botometer</a> was able to identify them while they pretentiously argued and agreed, for example, that “democratic men who vote drown out the voice of women.” We are part of the team that developed this tool that detects the bot accounts on social media.</p>
<p>Our next effort, called <a href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/botslayer/">BotSlayer</a>, is aimed at helping journalists and the general public spot these automated social media campaigns while they are happening. </p>
<p>It’s the latest step in our research laboratory’s work over the past few years. At Indiana University’s <a href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/">Observatory on Social Media</a>, we are uncovering and analyzing how false and misleading information spreads online.</p>
<p>One focus of our work has been to devise ways to identify inauthentic accounts being run with the help of software, rather than by individual humans. We also develop maps of <a href="http://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148">how online misinformation spreads among people</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-vaxxers-appear-to-be-losing-ground-in-the-online-vaccine-debate-114406">how it competes with reliable information sources</a> across social media sites.</p>
<p>However, we have also noticed that journalists, political campaigns, small businesses and even the public at large may have a better sense than we do of what online discussions are most likely to attract the attention of those who control automated propaganda systems.</p>
<p>We receive many requests from individuals and organizations who need help collecting and analyzing social media data. That is why, as a public service, we combined many of the capabilities and software tools our observatory has built <a href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/botslayer/">into a free, unified software package</a>, letting more people join our efforts to identify and combat manipulation and misinformation campaigns.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297973/original/file-20191021-56194-1wljbn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A dashboard shows how active – and how likely to be automated – Twitter accounts are about certain topics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/botslayer/">Observatory on Social Media, Indiana University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Combining different tools</h2>
<p>Many of our tools allow users to retrospectively query and examine our collection of a 10% random sample of all Twitter traffic over a long period of time. A user can specify keywords, hashtags, user mentions, locations or user accounts they’re interested in. Our software then collects the matching tweets and looks more deeply at their content by extracting links, hashtags, images, movies, phrases and usernames those tweets contain.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://truthy.indiana.edu/tools/trends/">trend analysis app</a> looks at how closely that suspicious content trends together. Our <a href="http://truthy.indiana.edu/tools/networks/">network analysis app</a> shows how ideas spread from user to user. Our <a href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/maps/">map app</a> checks the geographical pattern of suspicious activities around important topics.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://botometer.iuni.iu.edu/">Botometer app</a> then detects how likely it is that elements of the online discussion are being coordinated by a group of automated accounts. Rather than reflecting an authentic discourse of real people, these accounts may in fact be controlled by a person or an organization. These accounts usually act together, with some of them tweeting propaganda or disinformation, and others agreeing and retweeting, forming an inauthentic discourse around them to attract attention and draw real people into the online discussion.</p>
<p><a href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/botslayer/#DOCKER-HELP">BotSlayer</a> brings all the pieces together, letting a person <a href="https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/botslayer/#AWS-HELP">using it</a> do all those analyses with the entire flow of Twitter traffic.</p>
<p>BotSlayer’s system collects all matching tweets – not just a sample – and saves them in a database for any retrospective investigation. Its web interface, in one screen, shows users in real time the terms and keywords that are part of suspicious activity around their interests. Users can click on icons to search for related information on various websites and social media platforms to look for related malicious efforts elsewhere online. </p>
<p>For example, during the 2018 U.S. midterm election, many bot accounts that were reported on Twitter were also found to be related to Facebook bot accounts with similar profiles.</p>
<p>BotSlayer also provides links to our <a href="http://hoaxy.iuni.iu.edu">Hoaxy</a> system, which shows <a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-on-social-media-can-technology-save-us-69264">how Twitter accounts interact over time</a>, identifying which accounts are the most influential, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148">most likely to be spreading disinformation</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/778/demo.gif?1573671018" width="100%"></p>
<h2>Proving useful already</h2>
<p>On July 10, 2019, one of our BotSlayer systems, focusing on Twitter activity about U.S. politics, flagged suspicious activity for us to investigate. The system noticed the appearance of a large group of tweets, mostly from brand-new Twitter accounts whose names ended with a string of numbers – like @MariaTu34743110. Those are clues that their activity may be generated by a bot.</p>
<p>They were posting and retweeting links to a single YouTube video attacking a financier named <a href="https://theconversation.com/vladimir-putins-lying-game-100513">Bill Browder</a>, who has been at the center of a dispute between the United States and the Russian Federation. That shared focus is a clue that all the accounts were part of an interconnected system.</p>
<p>When we dug deeper, we identified more than 80 likely bots coordinating with each other to try to boost widespread attention to Browder’s alleged wrongdoing using <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191115195210/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l79kE0aqROw">the video on YouTube</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297976/original/file-20191021-56207-i9044w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visualization of the coordinated campaign against Bill Browder. At left, a timeline shows the volume of tweets spiking suddenly. At right, the accounts’ interactions are mapped, with likely bots in red, showing how closely interconnected they were.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Plenty of other uses</h2>
<p>Other coordinated campaigns have promoted <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/financial-scam">financial scams</a>, often seeking to sell questionable investments in cryptocurrencies. Scammers have impersonated internet celebrities like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-elon-musk-account-promoting-bitcoin-scam-promoted-twitter-ad-2018-11">entrepreneur Elon Musk</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1156842872274063360">software magnate John McAfee</a>. </p>
<p>These accounts are a bit more sophisticated than political-attack bots, with one lead account typically announcing that users can multiply their riches by transferring some of their cryptocurrency into the scammer’s digital wallet. Then other accounts retweet that announcement, in an effort to make the scheme seem legitimate. At times they reply with doctored screenshots claiming to show that the scheme works.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1156842872274063360"}"></div></p>
<p>So far, several news, political and civic organizations have tested BotSlayer. They have been able to identify large numbers of accounts that <a href="https://www.ndn.org/blog/2019/07/amplifiers-high-volume-pro-trump-accounts-twitter">publish hyperpolitical content at a superhuman pace</a>. </p>
<p>The feedback from testers has helped us make the system more robust, powerful and user-friendly. </p>
<p>As our research advances, we will continue to improve on the system, fixing software bugs and adding new features. In the end, we hope that BotSlayer will become a sort of do-it-yourself toolkit enabling journalists and citizens worldwide to expose and combat inauthentic campaigns in social media.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Members of the research team that wrote the software that unmasked thousands of Twitter bots explain the next phase of their work: getting the public involved in the fight against disinformation.Pik-Mai Hui, Ph.D. Student in Informatics and Network Science, Indiana UniversityChristopher Torres-Lugo, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230542019-09-09T13:43:45Z2019-09-09T13:43:45ZHow disinformation could sway the 2020 election<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291311/original/file-20190906-175691-ncvybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C245%2C3988%2C2419&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What people read online could really disrupt society and politics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hand-smartphone-enews-concept-casual-young-688514581">igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2016, Russian operatives <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-russian-government-used-disinformation-and-cyber-warfare-in-2016-election-an-ethical-hacker-explains-99989">used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/weaponized-information-seeks-a-new-target-in-cyberspace-users-minds-100069">sow division among American voters</a> and boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. </p>
<p>What the Russians used to accomplish this is called “disinformation,” which is false or misleading content intended to deceive or promote discord. Now, with the first presidential primary vote only five months away, the public should be aware of the sources and types of online disinformation likely to surface during the 2020 election.</p>
<p>First, the Russians will be back. <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-elections-suggest-us-shouldnt-be-complacent-in-2020-118084">Don’t be reassured</a> by the notorious Russian Internet Research Agency’s relatively negligible presence during last year’s midterm elections. The agency might have been keeping its powder dry in anticipation of the 2020 presidential race. And it helped that U.S. Cyber Command, an arm of the military, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cyber-command-operation-disrupted-internet-access-of-russian-troll-factory-on-day-of-2018-midterms/2019/02/26/1827fc9e-36d6-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html">reportedly blocked</a> the agency’s internet access for a few days right before the election in November 2018.</p>
<p>Temporarily shutting down the Internet Research Agency won’t be enough to stop the flow of harmful content. Lee Foster, who leads the disinformation team at the cybersecurity firm FireEye, told me in an interview that the agency is “a small component of the overall Russian operation,” which also includes Moscow’s military intelligence service and possibly other organizations. Over time, Foster said, “All of these actors rework their approaches and tactics.”</p>
<p>And there’s more to fear than just the Russians. I’m the author of a new <a href="https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/tech-disinfo-and-2020-election">report</a> on disinformation and the 2020 election published by the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. In the report, I predict that the Russians won’t be alone in spreading disinformation in 2020. Their most likely imitator will be Iran, especially if hostility between Tehran and Washington continues to mount.</p>
<h2>Disinformation isn’t just Russian</h2>
<p>In May, acting on a tip from FireEye, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/iran-linked-fake-accounts-facebook-twitter/">Facebook took down nearly 100 Iranian-related accounts</a>, pages and groups. The Iranian network had used fake American identities <a href="https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2019/05/social-media-network-impersonates-us-political-candidates-supports-iranian-interests.html">to espouse both conservative and liberal political views</a>, while also promoting extremely divisive anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian themes.</p>
<p>As Senate Intelligence Committee co-chair Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, has said, “<a href="https://twitter.com/MarkWarner/status/1032048781502672896">The Iranians are now following the Kremlin’s playbook</a>.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1032048781502672896"}"></div></p>
<p>While foreign election interference has dominated discussion of disinformation, most intentionally false content targeting U.S. social media is <a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news/releases/junk-news-dominating-coverage-of-us-midterms-on-social-media-new-research-finds/">generated by domestic sources</a>.</p>
<p>I believe that will continue to be the case in 2020. President Trump often uses Twitter to circulate conspiracy theories and <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1162044502292537344">cast his foes as corrupt</a>. One story line he pushes is that Facebook, Twitter and Google are colluding with Democrats to <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1163478770587721729">undermine him</a>. Introducing a <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/11/white-house-social-media-bias-talks-1576717">right-wing “social media summit”</a> at the White House in July, he tweeted about the “<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/7/11/20690226/trump-social-media-summit-stable-genius-tweet">tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination</a>, and suppression practiced by certain companies.”</p>
<p>Supporters of Democrats also have trafficked in disinformation. In December 2017, a group of liberal activists <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/09/683731977/how-project-birmingham-spread-misinformation-in-the-2017-alabama-senate-election">created fake Facebook pages</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/26/internet-billionaire-reid-hoffman-apologizes-funding-group-behind-disinformation-alabama-race/">designed to mislead conservative voters</a> in a special U.S. Senate race in Alabama. Matt Osborne, who has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/politics/alabama-senate-facebook-roy-moore.html">acknowledged being involved</a> in the Alabama scheme, told me that in 2020, “you’re going to see a movement toward [political spending from undisclosed sources] on digital campaigns in the closing days of the race.” He suggests there could be an effort to discourage Republicans from voting with “an image of a red wave with a triumphal statement that imbues them with a sense of inevitable victory: ‘No need to bother voting. Trump has got it in the bag.’”</p>
<h2>Spreading fake videos</h2>
<p>Also likely to surface next year: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=deepfakes">deepfake</a>” videos. This technique produces highly convincing – but false – images and audio. In a recent <a href="https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/schiff-presses-facebook-google-and-twitter-for-policies-on-deepfakes-ahead-of-2020-election">letter to the CEOs</a> of Facebook, Google and Twitter, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote: “<a href="https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/schiff-presses-facebook-google-and-twitter-for-policies-on-deepfakes-ahead-of-2020-election">A timely, convincing deepfake video</a> of a candidate” that goes viral on a platform “could hijack a race – and even alter the course of history. … The consequences for our democracy could be devastating.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cQ54GDm1eL0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Just one example of a deepfake video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instagram could be a vehicle for deepfakes. Owned by Facebook, the photo and video platform played a much <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-17/instagram-was-bigger-russian-election-tool-than-facebook-report">bigger role in Russia’s manipulation</a> of the 2016 U.S. election than most people realize, and it could be exploited again in 2020. The Russian Internet Research Agency enjoyed more user engagement on Instagram than it did on any other platform, according to a <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/press/new-reports-shed-light-internet-research-agency%E2%80%99s-social-media-tactics">December 2018 report</a> commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Instagram is likely to be a key battleground on an ongoing basis,” the report added.</p>
<h2>Companies could step up</h2>
<p>The social media companies are <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614269/facebook-is-making-ai-deepfakes-to-head-off-a-disinformation-disaster/">responding to the problem of disinformation</a> by improving their artificial intelligence filters and hiring thousands of additional employees devoted to safety and security. “The companies are getting much better at detection and removal of fake accounts,” <a href="https://dipayanghosh.com/">Dipayan Ghosh</a>, co-director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Platform Accountability Project, told me. </p>
<p>But the companies do not completely remove much of the content they pinpoint as false; they <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/hard-questions-false-news/">merely reduce how often it appears for users</a>, and sometimes post a message noting that it’s false.</p>
<p>In my view, provably false material should be eliminated from feeds and recommendations, with a copy retained in a cordoned-off archive available for research purposes to scholars, journalists and others.</p>
<p>Another problem is that responsibility for content decisions now tends to be scattered among different teams within each of the social media companies. Our report recommends that to streamline and centralize, <a href="https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/tech-disinfo-and-2020-election">each company should hire a senior official</a> who reports to the CEO and is responsible for overseeing the fight against disinformation. Such executives could marshal resources more easily within each company and more effectively coordinate efforts across social media companies. </p>
<p>Finally, the platforms could also cooperate more than they currently do to stamp out disinformation. They’ve collaborated effectively to <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/09/12/how-photodna-for-video-is-being-used-to-fight-online-child-exploitation/">root out child pornography</a> and <a href="https://gifct.org/press/global-internet-forum-counter-terrorism-update-our-progress-two-years/">terrorist incitement</a>. I believe they now have a collective responsibility to rid the coming election of as much disinformation as possible. An electorate that has been fed lies about candidates and issues can’t make informed decisions. Votes will be based on falsehoods. And that means the future of American democracy – in 2020 and beyond – depends on dealing effectively with disinformation.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul M. Barrett works for the NYU Center for Business and Human Rights, based at the Stern School of Business at NYU. I'm also an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law.
Publication of this article might help build the reputation of the Center.
The Center receives financial support from foundations and individuals. A portion of that support helps underwrite our research and advocacy on tech issues mentioned in the piece for The Conversation. </span></em></p>The Russians won’t be alone in spreading disinformation in 2020. Their most likely imitator will be Iran. Also, Instagram could get even more infected with intentional misinformation than it has been.Paul M. Barrett, Deputy Director, Center for Business and Human Rights, Stern School of Business; Adjunct Professor of Law, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1209602019-07-29T12:25:21Z2019-07-29T12:25:21ZWhy Facebook’s new ‘privacy cop’ is doomed to fail<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285897/original/file-20190726-43104-nbereh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=124%2C0%2C6265%2C4800&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who's watching Facebook watch you?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/magnifying-glass-on-large-group-people-708972022">alphaspirit/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/24/tech/facebook-ftc-settlement/">Federal Trade Commission issued its largest-ever fine</a>, of US$5 billion, to Facebook for violating a <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2011/11/facebook-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-failing-keep">2011 privacy settlement</a> in late July. But the amount is only <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/facebooks-ftc-fine-will-be-5-billion-or-one-months-worth-of-revenue/">about a month’s worth of the company’s revenue</a>, suggesting that the fine, while seeming large, is, in fact, rather modest. </p>
<p>More significantly, Facebook is required to have an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/technology/ftc-facebook-privacy-data.html">outside assessor</a>” – a sort of privacy cop – to monitor the company’s handling of user data, along with following a few other corporate procedural requirements. That assessor could address the fundamental problems with the way Facebook operates – but as a <a href="https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/bhaskar-chakravorti">scholar of technology companies’ business practices</a>, I’m worried that this potentially all-important role is set up for failure.</p>
<p>In my opinion, in order to be effective, there are three main privacy-related concerns the FTC’s newly designated cop would need to look out for: the potential for genuine violations of users’ privacy; the targeted spread of harmful content, especially resulting in election manipulation and ethnic violence; and instances of collecting and harvesting far more data than is warranted to provide services to users. </p>
<p>An independent assessor will lack the standards, regulatory and legal guidelines, and the insight needed to actually monitor how Facebook handles those three issues. This makes the privacy cop’s job much harder than that of a regular cop or, say, a financial auditor.</p>
<h2>Protecting users’ privacy</h2>
<p>Facebook’s history of privacy violations extends well beyond the most publicized ones, like letting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files">Cambridge Analytica</a> access the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-targeting-model-really-worked-according-to-the-person-who-built-it-94078">personal data of 50 million users</a> to craft <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-killing-democracy-with-its-personality-profiling-data-93611">micro-targeted political ad campaigns</a>. </p>
<p>Facebook has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/technology/facebook-data-sharing.html">secretly shared data with other companies</a> for years, without notifying the users. That practice, as well as the function that lets users sign in to other websites and apps <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2008/05/09/announcing-facebook-connect/">with their Facebook login</a>, has helped advertisers <a href="https://lifehacker.com/heres-how-internet-ads-follow-you-around-1826726345">follow their targets around the internet</a>. The company has also used its trove of user data to gain a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/16/18410932/facebook-user-data-privacy-cambridge-analytica">competitive advantage in business negotiations</a>, boosting its own profits without compensating the users themselves.</p>
<p>The FTC ruling gives the privacy cop no clear guidance on which data-sharing or data-withholding arrangements between Facebook and other companies are legitimate and where they cross a line. This is because there are still <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/06/g20-data/592606/">no internationally agreed-upon data protection rules</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/fragmented-us-privacy-rules-leave-large-data-loopholes-for-facebook-and-others-94606">few clear regulations</a> in the U.S. to compare Facebook’s actions against.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285898/original/file-20190726-43136-pt1fwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/rohit-chopra">FTC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Facebook’s business model uses its treasure trove of user data to target advertising, the source of <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-users-clicking-more-ads-174600658.html">almost all the company’s revenue</a>. An outsider will be unable to tell the difference between legitimate business practices that harvest user data to increase profits and problematic abuses that violate users’ privacy. In fact, FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra, who <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/092-3184/facebook-inc">dissented from the decision</a>, declared that the new settlement still “<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2019/07/dissenting-statement-commissioner-rohit-chopra-regarding-matter-facebook">allows Facebook to decide for itself</a> how much information it can harvest from its users and what it can do with that information.”</p>
<h2>Blocking harmful content</h2>
<p>Facebook has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/technology/facebook-election-war-room.html">struggled to limit harmful content</a> on its networks, such as that which fed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html">ethnic violence</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9fe88fba-6c0d-11e9-a9a5-351eeaef6d84">distributed misinformation</a> or facilitated <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/29/nancy-pelosi-facebook-russia-election-meddling-1346878">election interference</a>. Personal data helped the perpetrators target their messages to certain groups of Facebook users.</p>
<p>The outside assessor will be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/technology/ftc-facebook-privacy-data.html">focused on privacy</a>, which means that identifying, verifying and policing content will be beyond the assessor’s mandate. Ironically, steps to enhance privacy, such as ensuring end-to-end encryption across all of Facebook’s messaging platforms – as Mark Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/facebook-instagram-whatsapp-messenger.html">intends to do</a> – would help in protecting the identity of the spreaders of harmful messages, rather than exposing them and their actions.</p>
<h2>Protecting users from giving up too much</h2>
<p>Access to Facebook seems free, because it costs no money, but users <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-myths-to-bust-about-breaking-up-big-tech-119283">pay with their data</a>. The assessor should ask if the users are being charged fairly, in privacy terms, for the service they’re receiving. That raises the question of what a “fair” price is for what Facebook provides.</p>
<p>Normally, price is set by a competitive market, where <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/298835/bargaining-for-advantage-by-g-richard-shell/9780143036975">customers can choose</a> from a range of service providers. Not so on Facebook, where there are high costs – again, not financial, but in terms of time and effort – to leaving, and no other option offering equivalent services.</p>
<p>A social science phenomenon called the “<a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/05/network-effects-and-global-domination-the-facebook-strategy/">network effect</a>” means that any network is increasingly valuable as more people join it – but that means it’s also increasingly hard to leave. There are now <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-has-2-billion-plus-users-after-15-years-2019-2">more than 2.3 billion Facebook users</a> around the world. For too many people, their most <a href="https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/facebook-statistics/">active online social connections</a> are on Facebook.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285899/original/file-20190726-43130-tatb98.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spotify is one of the many online services that allows users to log in with their Facebook account credentials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://accounts.spotify.com/en/login/">Screenshot of Spotify website</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s hard to leave Facebook, not only because there are so many users. Many customers use their Facebook logins on thousands of other apps and services. If they delete their Facebook accounts, they lose all access to those other apps too, like customized Spotify playlists and Netflix viewing preferences. Worse still, Facebook has bought up many of its competitors. Lots of people who quit Facebook <a href="https://mashable.com/article/facebook-losing-users-us/">shift over to Instagram</a> – which is owned by Facebook. </p>
<p>Looking to the future, the company is making the price of leaving Facebook even higher, by planning to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/facebook-instagram-whatsapp-messenger.html">consolidate its data-collection power</a> by integrating its various apps, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp – as well as through a <a href="https://qz.com/1655319/the-winners-and-losers-of-facebooks-libra/">proposed digital currency</a> for transactions conducted on Facebook platforms. All of these create a playing field that is tilted in favor of an all-encompassing single parent company, limiting users’ choices and making switching difficult. No assessor can remedy the inherent unfairness of that imbalance.</p>
<p>Far more than the fine, the centerpiece of the FTC deal is the outside assessor. If properly designed, this role could be truly game-changing – one of a forceful privacy cop setting the standards for how the power of big technology firms is managed from here on. But the fine is a slap on the wrist, and the cop’s arms are tied and don’t reach far enough. This sets a very bad precedent: Both the FTC and Facebook can declare a victory of sorts, while the consumer loses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bhaskar Chakravorti has founded and directs the Institute for Business in the Global Context at Fletcher/Tufts that has received funding from Mastercard, Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Onassis Foundation. He is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Brookings India and a Senior Advisor on Digital Inclusion at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.</span></em></p>There’s no way an independent assessor will be able to actually monitor how Facebook might violate or abuse users’ privacy in key ways.Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business, The Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1194462019-07-24T11:07:27Z2019-07-24T11:07:27ZFacebook algorithm changes suppressed journalism and meddled with democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284794/original/file-20190718-116590-13ckvtp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3099%2C995&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How do you feel about Facebook?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kiev-ukraine-may-24-2019-new-1416299054">fyv6561/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facebook’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/1155510281178725">News Feed algorithm</a> determines <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/cover_story/2016/01/how_facebook_s_news_feed_algorithm_works.html">what users see</a> on its platform – from funny memes to comments from friends. The company <a href="http://www.ktvu.com/business/facebook-to-downgrade-posts-on-newsfeed-touting-miracle-cures">regularly</a> <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-algorithm/">updates</a> this algorithm, which can dramatically change what information people consume.</p>
<p>As the 2020 election approaches, there is much public concern that what was dubbed “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress-collins/house-judiciarys-top-republican-urges-hearings-into-russian-election-meddling-idUSKCN1T52B1">Russian meddling</a>” in the 2016 presidential election could happen again. But what’s not getting enough attention is the role Facebook’s algorithm changes play, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-russian-government-used-disinformation-and-cyber-warfare-in-2016-election-an-ethical-hacker-explains-99989">intentionally or not</a>, in that kind of meddling.</p>
<p>A key counterpoint to the Russian misinformation campaign was factual journalism from reputable sources – which <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/">reached many of their readers on Facebook and other social media platforms</a>. As a <a href="https://newhouse.syr.edu/faculty-staff/jennifer-grygiel">social media researcher and educator</a>, I see evidence that changes to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm suppressed users’ access to credible journalism in the run-up to Trump’s election. </p>
<p>Political operatives know Facebook serves as a gatekeeper of the information diets of <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/27/facebook-earnings-q4-2015/">more than 200 million Americans</a> and 2 billion users worldwide. Actions and abuse by others on the platforms have generated much concern and public discussion, including about how much <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-democrats-release-all-known-russian-troll-farm-facebook-ads-and-twitter-accounts">disinformation and propaganda Americans saw</a> before the election. What has not been talked about enough is the effect that Facebook’s algorithmic shifts have had on access to news and democracy.</p>
<h2>Changing the system</h2>
<p><a href="http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/facebook-see-first-launch/">In mid-2015</a>, Facebook introduced a major algorithm change that pivoted readers <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/03/24/facebook-news/">away from journalism and news</a>, to deliver more updates from their friends and family. The change was couched in friendly language suggesting Facebook was trying to make sure users <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/29/facebook-to-prioritise-posts-from-people-rather-than-brands">didn’t miss stories from friends</a>. But social media data shows that one effect of the change was to reduce the number of interactions Facebook users had with credible journalism outlets.</p>
<p>A few months before the 2016 election, an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/technology/facebook-to-change-news-feed-to-focus-on-friends-and-family.html">even bigger algorithm change toward friends and family posts</a> took a second toll on publisher traffic. A <a href="https://digiday.com/media/publishers-just-saw-decline-facebook-traffic/">wide range of news publishers</a> found that their content was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/29/facebook-news-feed-algorithm-change-traffic-publishing">significantly less visible</a> to Facebook users.</p>
<h2>Examining the numbers</h2>
<p>In my research, I looked at Facebook engagement for mainstream news outlets surrounding the 2016 election. My findings support others’ conclusions that Facebook’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2016/06/29/facebook-tweaks-news-feed-algorithm-to-prioritize-posts-from-friends-you-care-about/#1467cf4bda2e">algorithm greatly suppressed public engagement with these publishers</a>.</p>
<p>Data from CrowdTangle, a social media monitoring company, shows that Facebook traffic dropped noticeably at CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, The New York Times and The Washington Post after the company updated its algorithms to <a href="https://wallaroomedia.com/facebook-newsfeed-algorithm-history/#six">favor friends and family</a> in June 2016. </p>
<p>That proves the algorithm worked the way it was designed to work, but I am concerned that major U.S. publishers were suppressed in this way. Voter interest in the presidential election was <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/1-campaign-engagement-and-interest/">higher in 2016 than in the previous two decades</a>, and misinformation was rampant. Facebook’s changes meant that key news organizations across the political spectrum had a harder time getting the word out about credible election news and reporting. </p>
<p><iframe id="MWOWQ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MWOWQ/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Alarm bells</h2>
<p>Facebook was aware of concerns about its algorithm even before the election happened. One of <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/how-people-inside-facebook-are-reacting-to-the-companys">Facebook’s own engineers flagged these potential effects</a> of Facebook’s algorithm changes in July 2015. In 2016, Zuckerberg’s mentor, Roger McNamee, also <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/10/10/if-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-wants-forgiveness-hes-going-need-come-clean-first-roger-ncmanee-column/744520001/">attempted to alert Zuckerberg and Facebook executives</a> that the platform was being used to manipulate information about the election.</p>
<p>Just after the election, reporter Craig Silverman’s research at BuzzFeed showed that fake election news had outperformed “<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook">real news</a>.” In late 2018, Facebook’s own company statement revealed issues with how its algorithm rewarded “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-blueprint-for-content-governance-and-enforcement/10156443129621634/">borderline content</a>” that was sensational and provocative, like much of the hyperpartisan news that trended in advance of the election.</p>
<p>More recent research by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center shows that Facebook traffic <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/facebook-friends/">continued to decrease significantly for publishers</a> after a further Facebook algorithm change in January 2018. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/embedded-video/mmvo63675461988" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p><em>Prof. Grygiel calls for algorithmic transparency on MSNBC.</em></p>
<h2>Algorithmic transparency</h2>
<p>To date, research on how Facebook’s algorithm works has been limited by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1178592">lack of access</a> to its proprietary inner workings. It’s not enough to investigate the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/facebook-media-buzzfeed.php">effects of the changes</a> in Facebook’s News Feed. I believe it’s important to understand why they happened, too, and consider Facebook’s business decisions more directly and how they affect democracy.</p>
<p>Recent insight into the company’s internal processes suggest that Facebook is beginning to understand its power. In July 2019, Bloomberg News revealed that the company had deployed software on its own platform to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/how-facebook-fought-fake-news-about-facebook">look out for posts that portrayed Facebook itself in potentially misleading ways</a>, reducing their visibility to safeguard the company’s reputation.</p>
<p>Some international legal scholars have begun to call for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1037969X17730192">laws to protect democracies</a> against the possibility that algorithmic manipulation could deliver electoral gain. There’s no proof that Facebook’s changes had political intentions, but it’s not hard to imagine that the company could tweak its algorithms in the future, if it wanted to. </p>
<p>To guard against that potential, new laws could bar changes to the algorithm in the run-up periods before elections. In the financial industry, for instance, “<a href="https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answersquiethtm.html">quiet periods</a>” in advance of major corporate announcements seek to prevent marketing and public-relations efforts from artificially influencing stock prices.</p>
<p>Similar protections for algorithms against corporate manipulation could help ensure that <a href="https://gizmodo.com/facebook-board-member-peter-thiel-calls-google-treasono-1836370398">politically active</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-cryptocurrency-launch-facebook-sets-its-path-toward-becoming-an-independent-nation-118987">power-seeking Facebook executives</a> – or any other company with significant control over users’ access to information – can’t use their systems to shape public opinion or voting behavior.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This article has been updated to correct the description of the timing of Roger McNamee’s warning.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119446/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Grygiel owns a small number of shares in the following social media companies: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Alibaba, LinkedIn, YY and Snap. Grygiel also owns nominal amounts of the following cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.</span></em></p>Facebook serves as a gatekeeper of the information diets of more than 200 million Americans and 2 billion users worldwide.Jennifer Grygiel, Assistant Professor of Communications (Social Media) & Magazine, News and Digital Journalism, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1192832019-07-17T11:18:19Z2019-07-17T11:18:19Z3 myths to bust about breaking up ‘big tech’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284118/original/file-20190715-173342-1ji5sep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C0%2C5069%2C3376&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Before taking on tech giants, shatter a few misconceptions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/iron-hammer-breaking-glass-window-340890053">W. Scott McGill/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the public and government regulators around the world discuss <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/731044346/big-tech-and-antitrust">whether and how</a> to manage the power of technology companies, one idea that keeps coming up is breaking up these large conglomerate corporations into smaller pieces. Public distrust for tech companies has shifted to talk of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-is-preparing-antitrust-investigation-of-google-11559348795">antitrust action</a> against them. Facebook, for instance, might then have to <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/21/facebook-owns-instagram-messenger-whatsapp-now-theres-a-call-to-break-it-all-up/">compete with Instagram for photo-sharing</a> and WhatsApp for messaging – rather than owning both. </p>
<p>The idea has managed to garner support from both <a href="https://www.politico.com/2020-election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/technology/tech-competition-antitrust/">Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren</a>, a Democrat, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-claims-collusion-between-big-tech-democrats-backs-antitrust-fines-n1015726">Republican President Donald Trump</a>.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.politico.com/2020-election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/technology/tech-competition-antitrust/">advocates</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/these-are-some-of-the-best-quotes-about-technology-monopolies-in-2019/">opponents</a> of breaking up big technology firms are falling prey to some serious misconceptions. I study the effects of digital technologies on lives and livelihoods across 85 countries and lead Tufts Fletcher School’s <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/digitalplanet/">Digital Planet</a> initiative studying technological innovation around the world. In my opinion, there are three myths worth busting before considering taking on big tech. </p>
<h2>Myth 1: Comparing Standard Oil and Google</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284102/original/file-20190715-173370-5ovggf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_D_Rockefeller_1872.png">Urbanrenewal/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arguments for and against antitrust action against tech firms rely heavily on the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/19/business/microsoft-trial-precedents-previous-antitrust-cases-leave-room-for-both-sides.html">experiences of earlier cases</a>. The massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-tech-giants-a-cautionary-tale-from-19th-century-railroads-on-the-limits-of-competition-91616">19th-century monopoly Standard Oil</a> has, in fact, been referred to as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/the-case-against-google.html">Google of its day</a>.” There are also people who are recalling the 1990s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/opinion/microsoft-antitrust-case.html">antitrust case against Microsoft’s dominant position</a> in the era of personal computers. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284103/original/file-20190715-173360-2qxmqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Google co-founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schmidt-Brin-Page-20080520_(cropped).jpg">Joi Ito/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those cases from the past may seem similar to today’s situation, but this era is different in one crucial way: the global technology marketplace. Currently, there are two parallel “big tech” clusters. One is in the U.S., dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-tech-isnt-one-big-monopoly-its-5-companies-all-in-different-businesses-92791">Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple</a>. The other is based in China, dominated by <a href="https://singularityhub.com/2018/08/17/baidu-alibaba-and-tencent-the-rise-of-chinas-tech-giants/">Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei</a>. This global market is subject to different political and policy pressures than regulators faced when dealing with Standard Oil and Microsoft.</p>
<p>Both clusters are attempting to add users to <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/01/which-countries-are-leading-the-data-economy">accumulate reservoirs of data</a>, which will fuel the next stage of competitiveness in a future run by artificial intelligence. The Chinese government has blocked most of the U.S. companies from entering the Chinese market, protecting its “<a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2120913/china-recruits-baidu-alibaba-and-tencent-ai-national-team">AI national team</a>.” The <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-27/alibaba-pulls-back-in-u-s-amid-trump-crackdown-on-chinese-investment">U.S. government has done likewise</a>, blacklisting some Chinese outfits for a period while discouraging others.</p>
<p>If the U.S. technology giants are broken up, the result would be a vastly uneven global playing field, pitting fragmented U.S. companies against consolidated state-protected Chinese firms.</p>
<p>Geopolitical factors aren’t limited to the U.S.-China rivalry. The European Union, Russia and India are also heavy users of Silicon Valley technologies, and each is <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3eb00398-9815-11e9-8cfb-30c211dcd229">exploring its own options</a> for legislation and regulation too.</p>
<p>U.S. companies’ size and data accumulation capabilities give the country economic and political influence around the globe. Their power would change if they were broken up – and, in my view, that should be a key consideration in regulators’ decisions.</p>
<h2>Myth 2: Price is right</h2>
<p>There are two main views of antitrust action in these discussions. One focuses on consumer welfare, which has been the prevailing approach federal lawyers have taken <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/724991">since the 1960s</a>. The other view suggests that regulators should look at the <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox">underlying structure of the market</a> and potential for <a href="https://www.pbwt.com/antitrust-update-blog/a-brief-overview-of-the-new-brandeis-school-of-antitrust-law">powerful players to exploit</a> their positions.</p>
<p>Those two sides seem to agree that price plays a key role. People who argue against breaking up the tech giants point out that Facebook and Google provide services that are <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/06/facebook-big-tech-antitrust-breakup-mistake.html">free to the consumer</a>, and that Amazon’s marketplace power drives its products’ costs down. On the other side, though, are those who say that <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox">having low or no prices</a> is evidence that these companies are artificially lowering consumer costs to draw users into company-controlled systems that are <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/04/why-no-one-really-quits-google-or-facebook/">hard to leave</a>.</p>
<p>Both sides are missing the fact that the monetary price is less relevant as measure of what users pay in the technology industry than it is in other types of business. Users <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-is-your-data-worth-to-tech-companies-lawmakers-want-to-tell-you-but-its-not-that-easy-to-calculate-119716">pay for digital products with their data</a>, rather than just money. Regulators shouldn’t focus only on the monetary costs to the users. Rather, they should ask whether users are being asked for more data than is strictly necessary, whether information is being collected in <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-in-10-smartphone-apps-share-your-data-with-third-party-services-72404">intrusive or abusive ways</a> and whether customers are <a href="https://www.axios.com/mark-warner-josh-hawley-dashboard-tech-data-4ee575b4-1706-4d05-83ce-d62621e28ee1.html">getting good value in exchange for their data</a>.</p>
<h2>Myth 3: Trust-busting is all or nothing</h2>
<p>There aren’t just two ways for this debate to end, with either a breakup of one or more technology giants or simply leaving things as they are for the market to develop further. </p>
<p>My own idea of the best outcome would take a page from the history of antitrust litigation: The company that is sued is not broken up, and yet the very fact that there was a lawsuit leads to progress. That has happened in the past, in the cases against the Bell System, IBM and Microsoft.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284111/original/file-20190715-173376-1k7ro27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A replica of the first transistor, developed at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Replica-of-first-transistor.jpg">National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1956 federal consent decree against the Bell System, which settled a seven-year legal proceeding against the company, the company wasn’t split up, but Bell was required to <a href="https://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/how_antitrust_enforcement.pdf">license all its patents royalty-free</a> to other firms. This meant that some of the most profound technological innovations in history – including the <a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/who-invented-the-transistor/">transistor</a>, the <a href="https://www.popsci.com/article/science/invention-solar-cell/">solar cell</a> and the <a href="https://www.photonics.com/Articles/A_History_of_the_Laser_1960_-_2019/a42279">laser</a> – became widely available, yielding computers, solar power and other technologies that are crucial to the modern world. When the Bell System was <a href="https://www.cio.com/article/3267826/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-why-the-bell-system-breakup-isn-t-a-model-for-tech.html">eventually broken up</a> in 1982, it did not do nearly as much to spread <a href="https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BF-AV826_ATT_16U_20171120171814.jpg">innovation and competition</a> as the agreement that kept the Bells together a quarter-century earlier. </p>
<p>The antitrust action against IBM lasted 13 years and didn’t break up the firm. However, as part of its tactics to avoid appearing to be a monopoly, IBM agreed to <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/ibm-and-microsoft-antitrust-then-and-now/">separate pricing for its hardware and software products</a>, previously sold as an indivisible bundle. This created an opportunity for entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Paul Allen to create a new software-only company, called Microsoft. The surge of software innovations that have followed can clearly trace their origins to the IBM settlement. </p>
<p>Two decades later, Microsoft was itself the target of an antitrust action. In the resulting settlement, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/6/17827042/antitrust-1990s-microsoft-google-aol-monopoly-lawsuits-history">Microsoft agreed to ensure its products were compatible</a> with competitors’ software. That made room in the emerging internet marketplace for web browsers, the predecessors of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Google Chrome.</p>
<p>Even Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s top antitrust official and frequent tech-giant nemesis, has said that “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/the-case-against-google.html">Antitrust prosecutions are part of how technology grows</a>.” But that doesn’t mean they all have to achieve their most extreme ends, of breaking up the companies. </p>
<p>Antitrust rules are complicated enough, and plenty of experts will be called on to give their views on what to do with “big tech.” Technology pervades every aspect of modern lives, giving each person a responsibility to weigh in on this issue without misconceptions clouding their judgments. Technology has become a political issue. In a politically overheated climate, public sentiments may matter even more than the opinions of experts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bhaskar Chakravorti has founded and directs the Institute for Business in the Global Context at Fletcher/Tufts that has received funding from Mastercard, Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Onassis Foundation. He is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Brookings India and a Senior Advisor on Digital Inclusion at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.</span></em></p>Advocates and opponents of breaking up Facebook, Google and other technology giants are falling prey to some serious misconceptions.Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business, The Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1172962019-05-23T19:31:02Z2019-05-23T19:31:02ZFacebook doesn’t fool me – but I worry about how it affects you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275514/original/file-20190520-69204-1q7cp6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=702%2C35%2C7237%2C5261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I'm safe, but you should be more careful online.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businessmen-stress-investment-has-inevitably-failed-1147149473">Rapeepat Pornsipak/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of prominent figures have called for some sort of regulation of Facebook – including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opinion/sunday/chris-hughes-facebook-zuckerberg.html">one of the company’s co-founders</a> and a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/598206/zucked-by-roger-mcnamee/9780525561354/">venture capitalist</a> who was one of Facebook’s early backers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-wsj.html">Much of the criticism</a> of Facebook relates to how the company’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-transparency-efforts-hide-key-reasons-for-showing-ads-115790">algorithms target users</a> with advertising, and the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-news-echo-chambers-and-filter-bubbles-underresearched-and-overhyped-76688">echo chambers</a>” that show users ideologically slanted content.</p>
<p>Despite the public criticism, the company has <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/">posted record profits</a>. And <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/">billions of people</a> – including <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/16/facts-about-americans-and-facebook/">more than two-thirds of American adults</a> – continue to use the unregulated version of Facebook that exists now.</p>
<p>I have been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LJNfe3cAAAAJ&hl=en">studying the social dynamics of the internet</a> for 30 years, and I suspect what’s behind these apparent contradictions is something psychological. People know about Facebook’s problems, but each person assumes he or she is largely immune – even while imagining that everyone else is very susceptible to influence. That paradox helps explain why people keep using the site – which still boasts <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/">more than 2 billion monthly average users</a>. And ironically, it also helps explain what’s behind pressure to regulate the social media giant.</p>
<h2>It’s not me, it’s them</h2>
<p>The psychological tendency at work here is called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/268763">the third person effect</a>,” the belief that media don’t fool me, and maybe don’t fool you, but all those other people are sitting ducks for media effects.</p>
<p>Ironically, this dynamic can encourage people to support restrictions on media consumption – by others. If someone uses, say, a social media site and feels immune to its negative influences, it triggers another psychological phenomenon called the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2003.tb02586.x">influence of presumed influence</a>.” When that happens, a person worries that everyone else falls victim, and supports efforts to protect others, even if they think they themselves don’t need the protection.</p>
<p>This could be why there are lots of Facebook users who complain about Facebook’s danger to others, but <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-02-04/we-asked-listeners-why-they-cant-quit-facebook-heres-what-you-said">continue using it nevertheless</a>.</p>
<p>Even the Facebook-funding venture capitalist Roger McNamee, who wrote a book about <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/598206/zucked-by-roger-mcnamee/9780525561354/">how bad Facebook has become</a>, may have fallen prey to this psychological irony. As the Washington Post reports, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-former-social-media-evangelist-unfriends-facebook/2019/02/14/5926516a-2898-11e9-b2fc-721718903bfc_story.html">despite … his disgust</a> with the worst crimes of social media platforms … McNamee not only still owns Facebook shares … he also still counts himself among the behemoth’s more than 2 billion users. After all, McNamee acknowledges with a shrug and a smile, ‘I’ve got a book to promote.’”</p>
<h2>Not everyone can be above average</h2>
<p>McNamee may think he’s immune to the echo chambers and other online influences that, he warns, affect the average Facebook user. What if average Facebook users think they’re not the average Facebook user, and therefore also believe that they are immune to Facebook’s pernicious influences?</p>
<p>I explored this possibility in a survey of 515 adults in the U.S. who used Facebook at least once the previous week. Participants were recruited by Qualtrics, a company that administered my survey questions. Respondents resided in all 50 states. Their average age was 39, and they reported an average of just under 10 hours per week on Facebook, which they estimated to be similar to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17501224/instagram-facebook-snapchat-time-spent-growth-data">most other Facebook users</a>. </p>
<p>The survey asked the respondents three groups of questions. One group was about how strongly they believe that Facebook affects them on a number of important social and political topics, including building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding or repealing the Affordable Care Act, whether President Trump is doing a good job and other <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/04/state-of-the-union-2019-how-americans-see-major-national-issues/">major national issues</a>.</p>
<p>The second group of questions asked how much each respondent believes Facebook affects others’ perceptions of those same issues – how much social media affects their idea of “the average person.”</p>
<p>The third group of questions asked how strongly each respondent supported regulating Facebook, through a variety of possible strategies that include rulings from the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission, breaking up Facebook using anti-trust laws, requiring Facebook to reveal its algorithms and other steps.</p>
<h2>Eager to protect others</h2>
<p>Respondents believed that Facebook affects other people’s perceptions much more strongly than it affects their own. The more they thought that others were more vulnerable than they were, the more they wanted to rein Facebook in. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275513/original/file-20190520-69209-lbrvzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man misled by online information surrenders to police in Washington, D.C., after firing a rifle in a pizzeria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gunman-Pizza-Shop/68cee49a27154782b9348a063ffd2815/4/0">Sathi Soma via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People who thought they were far less affected than others, and who wanted to regulate Facebook, also believed more strongly that the source of the problem with Facebook lies in the power of echo chambers to repeat, amplify and reinforce a user’s beliefs. That was true even though they would be affected by the regulations as well.</p>
<p>Echo chambers do exist, and they do affect people’s perceptions – even leading one person to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-man-with-assault-rifle-dc-comet-pizza-victim-of-fake-sex-trafficking-story/">shoot up a pizza parlor</a> alleged to be a front for child prostitution. But research has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1428656">called into question</a> the idea that echo chambers are extremely influential over most people’s views.</p>
<p>In my view, it’s more important to help people understand that they are just as much at risk from Facebook as everyone else, whatever the level of risk may actually be. Society may bear some responsibility, but so do individual Facebook users. Otherwise they’ll ignore recommendations about their own media consumption, while supporting calls for sweeping regulations that may be too broad and potentially misdirected. Ultimately, people need to save themselves more, and worry a little less about saving everyone else.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph B. Walther receives funding from the US National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and donors to the UCSB Center for Information Technology and Society. </span></em></p>People know about Facebook’s problems, but assume they are largely immune – even while they imagine that everyone else is very susceptible to influence.Joseph B. Walther, Professor of Communication; Director, Center for Information Technology and Society, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157902019-05-15T10:44:39Z2019-05-15T10:44:39ZFacebook’s ‘transparency’ efforts hide key reasons for showing ads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273868/original/file-20190510-183083-1r61flu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=107%2C330%2C6383%2C4154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why is that ad targeting you?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/three-blue-arrows-hitting-target-center-308182655">Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facebook’s advertising platform was not built to help social media users understand who was targeting them with messages, or why. It is an extremely powerful system, which lets advertisers target specific users according to a detailed range of attributes. For example, in 2017, there were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/14/business/media/advertisers-streaming-video-broadcast-tv.html">3,100 people in Facebook’s database</a> who lived in Idaho, were in long-distance relationships and were thinking about buying a minivan. </p>
<p>That ability to microtarget specific messages at very particular groups of people can, however, let dishonest advertisers <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/28/707614254/hud-slaps-facebook-with-housing-discrimination-charge">discriminate against minority groups</a> or spread <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-targeting-model-really-worked-according-to-the-person-who-built-it-94078">politically divisive misinformation</a>.</p>
<p>Governments and advocates <a href="http://time.com/5387560/senate-intelligence-hearing-facebook-twitter/">in the U.S.</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46385050">and Europe</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/foreign-governments-are-fed-social-media-threatening-prison-tech-employees-n993841">elsewhere around the globe</a>, have been pushing Facebook to make the inner workings of its advertising system <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/31/mozilla-tells-eu-facebook-not-transparent-enough/">clearer to the public</a>.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/442598-bipartisan-group-of-senators-seek-to-increase-transparency-of-online">Congress continues to review ideas</a>, it’s not yet clear how best to make these systems more transparent. It’s not even obvious what information people most need to know about how they are targeted with ads. I am part of a <a href="https://adanalyst.mpi-sws.org/">team of researchers</a> investigating where risks come from in social media advertising platforms, and what transparency practices would reduce them.</p>
<h2>Analyzing Facebook ads</h2>
<p>In response to users’ and regulators’ concerns, Facebook recently introduced a “<a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/03/why-am-i-seeing-this/">Why am I seeing this ad?</a>” button that is supposed to provide users with an explanation for why they had been targeted with a particular ad. </p>
<p>However, the only people who see Facebook ads are those that Facebook’s algorithms choose, based on advertisers’ chosen criteria. Without help from Facebook, the only way to audit advertisers and the ads they buy is to directly collect from actual users the ads they see in their timelines. To do this, my research group developed a free <a href="https://adanalyst.mpi-sws.org">browser extension called AdAnalyst</a> that users can install to anonymously collect data about the ads they see.</p>
<p>More than 600 people shared their data with us, which allowed us to observe more than 50,000 advertisers and 235,000 ads from March 2017 to August 2018. We learned quite a bit about who advertises on Facebook, how they target their messages and how much information users can get about why they’re actually being shown specific ads.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=204&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=204&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=204&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274125/original/file-20190513-183109-17qip17.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is what Facebook says about why it displayed a specific ad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oana Goga screenshot from Facebook.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who are Facebook’s advertisers?</h2>
<p>Any Facebook user can become an advertiser in a matter of minutes and just <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/ads">five clicks</a>. The company does not seek to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/1288173394636262?helpref=faq_content">verify a person’s identity</a>, nor any involvement of a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/100168986860974?helpref=faq_content">legitimate, registered business</a>. </p>
<p>Our AdAnalyst data revealed that just 36% of advertisers bother to get themselves verified. There is no way to truly identify the remaining 64%, so they can’t really be held accountable for what their ads might say. </p>
<p>We also found that more than 10% of advertisers are news organizations, politicians, universities, and legal and financial firms, trying to promote nonmaterial services or spread particular messages. Efforts to determine if any of them are dishonest, spreading disinformation or racially targeting messages is much more difficult than, for instance, figuring out whether someone has falsely advertised a bicycle for sale.</p>
<h2>Very specific targeting</h2>
<p>We found that the most-targeted user interests were broad categories like “travel” and “food and drinks.” But a surprising amount of ads, 39%, were more specifically directed using keywords advertisers entered, for which Facebook suggested related interests and categories. For instance, an advertiser could type in “alcoholic” and get suggestions including “alcoholic beverages” – but also people interested in “Alcoholics Anonymous,” and users whom Facebook’s algorithms had identified as being part of a group called “adult children of alcoholics.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274356/original/file-20190514-60532-fjjauh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facebook’s ad system suggests possible categories of users to target, including ones its algorithms have identified.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot of Facebook.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, we observed that 20% of advertisers use potentially invasive or opaque strategies to determine who sees their ads. For instance, 2% of advertisers targeted ads at specific users based on their personally identifying information, like email addresses or phone numbers, which they had collected elsewhere, perhaps from customer loyalty programs or online mailing lists.</p>
<p>Another 2% used attributes from third-party data brokers to identify, for instance, “First-time homebuyers” or people who use “primarily cash.” A further 16% used a Facebook feature called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/164749007013531">Lookalike audiences</a> to reach new users Facebook’s algorithms evaluate as being similar to users who had previously interacted with the business.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273865/original/file-20190510-183086-ihlmnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Russian troll operation bought this Facebook ad to inflame some Americans, and other ads to agitate other groups, including those with opposing views.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/social-media-advertisements.htm">U.S. House Intelligence Committee</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Malicious groups can – and do – use these features to target Facebook ads in dishonest and manipulative ways. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/propaganda-spewing-russian-trolls-act-differently-online-from-regular-people-100855">Russian troll farm called the Internet Research Agency</a>, for instance, managed several Facebook accounts, including two that created ads for <a href="http://www.socially-divisive-ads.dcc.ufmg.br/app.php?query=209">directly</a> <a href="http://www.socially-divisive-ads.dcc.ufmg.br/app.php?query=433">opposing</a> messages about the Black Lives Matter movement.</p>
<h2>Facebook explanations are thin, unclear</h2>
<p>Facebook doesn’t claim to give complete explanations to users about why they’re seeing a particular ad. Its messages often say things like “one reason you’re seeing this ad is,” “based on a combination of factors” and “there may be other reasons you’re seeing this ad.”</p>
<p>To find out more details, we used our AdAnalyst tool to collect, from a set of volunteers, not only all the ads they received, but also the explanations Facebook offered for showing them those ads. In addition, we designed controlled ad campaigns specifically targeting our AdAnalyst volunteers, to compare Facebook’s explanations to the actual targeting parameters we chose.</p>
<p>We found that <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.14722/ndss.2019.23280">Facebook’s ad explanations are incomplete in potentially worrying ways</a>.
For instance, we bought an ad whose primary targets were specific people, based on a list of emails we had collected from people willing to participate in our experiment. As secondary target criteria, we added “Photography” and “Facebook.” </p>
<p>When users clicked on “Why am I seeing this ad?,” they learned only that they saw it because they are interested in Facebook, a characteristic they share with 1.3 billion other users. There was no mention of anything about their interest in photography, which they share with 659 million others. They saw no mention at all that we had targeted them specifically using their email address.</p>
<p>Revealing the most common characteristic, rather than the most distinct – and not disclosing that a user was individually targeted – is not a particularly useful explanation. This practice deprives users of the full picture of how they were targeted with an ad message. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273871/original/file-20190510-183096-lotnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly promised his company will be more transparent about how it targets users with advertising.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Facebook-Privacy-Scandal-Congress/47187d7ff9034f7786a6539b10c0c558/11/1">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Advertisers can hide direct targeting</h2>
<p>In addition, advertisers may be able to hide evidence of controversial or discriminatory ad campaigns, or efforts that target characteristics people consider private, by adding a very prevalent attribute to their audience-targeting selection. For example, a person who wanted to target an ad at people with income below US$20,000 a year could conceal that intent by adding, as a secondary criterion, that they were “interested in Facebook” or “used a mobile phone” – massive groups that wouldn’t limit the advertising pool, but would more likely be mentioned in Facebook’s attempt to explain why any one person saw that ad.</p>
<p>Our experiments also show that Facebook’s ad explanations sometimes offer reasons that were never specified by the advertiser. We instructed Facebook to send ads only to a set of people whose emails we had. Despite the fact that we selected no location, all of the corresponding ad explanations contained the following text: “There may be other reasons why you’re seeing this ad, including that [advertiser] wants to reach people ages 18 and older who live [in or near]” and then mentioned a location near that user – though we had specified no locations at all. If Facebook fills in its explanations with reasons advertisers never chose, its transparency efforts are even more misleading.</p>
<p>To provide users with a more complete picture of who is targeting them and why, <a href="https://adanalyst.mpi-sws.org/">AdAnalyst</a> shows aggregate statistics about advertisers targeting them and the characteristics of other users that received the same ads. We hope our tool will help users identify and avoid dishonest advertisers and their messages.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oana Goga receives funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the Data Transparency Lab (DTL).</span></em></p>Rather than revealing an advertiser targeted you by your phone number or email address, Facebook may tell you it showed you a particular ad because you like Facebook. That’s not much help.Oana Goga, Research scientist, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1160342019-04-26T10:50:50Z2019-04-26T10:50:50ZHow to avoid accidentally becoming a Russian agent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271071/original/file-20190425-121220-16y3niy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1871%2C1159&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">He's calling – but will you answer?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/59485/photos">Russian Presidential Executive Office</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>American citizens are unwittingly becoming Russian agents. That’s an unavoidable conclusion of Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf">Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election</a>, and an important problem that requires a change in thinking about how people interact on social media. Old adages like “Don’t talk to strangers” don’t really apply in a hyperconnected world. A more accurate replacement is perhaps even more worrying, though: “If you talk to strangers online, assume they are spies until proven otherwise.”</p>
<p>Facebook estimated that <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/30/media/russia-facebook-126-million-users/index.html">126 million Americans</a> saw one of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/05/11/what-we-found-facebook-ads-russians-accused-election-meddling/602319002/">more than 3,500 Russian-purchased ads</a> on its site. Twitter identified <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/10/31/russia-ads-facebook-twitter-google-congress/">nearly 40,000 Russia-linked accounts</a> that issued 1.5 million tweets, which were viewed a total of 288 million times. As a <a href="https://newhouse.syr.edu/faculty-staff/jennifer-grygiel">social media researcher and educator</a>, this shows the scale of people’s exposure to state propaganda and the potential to influence public opinion. But that’s not the really bad news. </p>
<p>According to the Mueller report, some U.S. citizens even helped Russian government agents organize real-life events, aiding the propaganda campaign, possibly without knowing that’s what they were doing. There’s a whole section of the report called “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf#page=39">Targeting and Recruitment of U.S. Persons</a>,” detailing how Russian agents approached people through direct messages on social media, as part of their efforts to sow discord and division in order to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. </p>
<p>Mueller doesn’t say why these people let themselves be manipulated into participating. But this Russian victory, the co-opting of Americans against their own democratic processes, happened because the Russian government used old-school influence techniques on new social media platforms. Online predators with harmful agendas often use the same tricks, so learn to protect yourself.</p>
<h2>Cooperate cautiously</h2>
<p>Mainly, the Russians exploited what is called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0157">drive to cooperate</a>, an ingrained part of human nature that encourages people to work with others. It’s why you stop when you see someone stumble or drop something, or why you hold a door for a person carrying a lot of bags.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s natural to want to offer a helping hand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-helped-us-push-car-broken-266563883">TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This human trait may have been better suited for times when people didn’t interact so much online with strangers – but rather a world where people used to interact primarily in real life with family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and classmates. Now, though, online interactions link people across the world through targeted advertising, specific search results, social media hashtags and corporate algorithms that suggest who else a person should connect with. These connections may seem as strong as in-person ones, but they carry much more risk for exploitation of human kindness and the need for belonging.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, social media accounts aren’t verified, which is a means of authenticating that an online account matches the identity of an actual person or organization in real life. Accounts are often anonymous, and it’s very easy and common for people to set up <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-facebook-fakes-fraud-inauthentic-behavior-14860389">fake profiles</a> that look like a real person. It is difficult to know for certain whom you’re interacting with or what they actually want out of your connection. </p>
<p>Thankfully, research has shown that people have defense mechanisms to avoid deception or what platforms have dubbed “<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/facebook-removes-inauthentic-engagement-philippines-nic">inauthentic behavior</a>.” Americans being targeted by Russians aren’t just sitting ducks – they have innate skills, if they remember to use them.</p>
<h2>Reciprocate thoughtfully</h2>
<p>Research on influence and its abuse shows how persuasion works and focuses on principles such as <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/07/the-uses-and-abuses-of-influence">reciprocity</a> – the act of returning favors and things like gifts for mutual benefit. This can be a small gesture, like friends taking turns buying drinks for each other. Online, it could be even smaller: Seeing someone share your post or respond to a comment you made can cause you to want to reply or like the post on their page.</p>
<p>To avoid being duped, check things out before you reciprocate. If you and another person in an online group are interacting in public view – sharing posts and making and liking comments – it’s probably fine. But if they then send you a direct message asking for a favor or to run an errand, keep your wits about you. You still have no idea who they are, what they do for work, what their name might be or even what country they live in.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If an online ‘friend’ asks you to dress up like Santa, maybe be skeptical.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/funny-santa-claus-wearing-red-costume-524102818">Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Be especially cautious if they, for instance, ask you to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf#page=40">wear a Santa Claus suit and a mask of Donald Trump’s face</a> around your city. At least one American did this, according to the Mueller report. Consider Skyping them first, or seeing if they can speak to you without the aid of Google Translate or if their <a href="https://datingtips.match.com/online-dating-5471027.html">voice matches the gender</a> they state on their profile.</p>
<h2>Join forces skeptically</h2>
<p>The Russian government also targeted close-knit communities with strong senses of shared identity, which scholars call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2005.08.006">oneness</a>.” They created <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf#page=33">online groups and pages</a> that pretended to support and participate in the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQ communities.</p>
<p>It’s clear that any identity-based online group could prove an easy target, so be careful when joining and affiliating with them, especially if you do not personally know the organizers in real life.</p>
<p>There are so many different situations where influence techniques could exploit aspects of human nature that it’s impossible to outline all the potential scenarios. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of a Russian propaganda ad on Facebook.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/">U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061241895/influence/">Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion</a>,” psychologist Robert Cialdini offers a general rule to help defend against being swept into an influence campaign: Be on guard if you have a feeling of liking a contact more quickly, or more deeply, than you would have expected. Simply put, trust warnings from your gut if you’re starting to notice things are moving really quickly with someone you barely know. That’s especially true if this is an online friend, and even more so if the person regularly posts images of identity-based memes (known as memeplexes), like bald eagles (patriotism memeplex), rainbows (LGBT memeplex) or Jesus (Christian memeplex).</p>
<p>In an age where governments sow global political instability by exploiting social media and interpersonal trust, it’s more important than ever to be skeptical of people you connect with – not only online, but in line at Starbucks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Grygiel owns a small number of shares in the following social media companies: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Alibaba, LinkedIn, YY and Snap.</span></em></p>The Mueller report reveals that some U.S. citizens helped Russian government agents organize real-life events, aiding Russia’s propaganda campaign. Don’t be like them.Jennifer Grygiel, Assistant Professor of Communications (Social Media) & Magazine, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156732019-04-23T10:42:23Z2019-04-23T10:42:23ZIn India, WhatsApp is a weapon of antisocial hatred<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270156/original/file-20190419-28116-15hgsdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3699%2C2273&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smartphones are a conduit for misinformation about the Indian election.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Elections-Fake-News/1d566136267e44f8af5ed6ad5a5d967e/5/0">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A general election in India, the world’s most populous democracy, seems a theoretical impossibility. Collecting the votes of nearly a billion people across a staggeringly diverse subcontinent has for more than half a century faced challenges of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/election-workers-in-india-traveled-300-miles-over-4-days-to-set-up-a-polling-booth--for-one-voter/2019/04/17/44b4eb46-5bb1-11e9-98d4-844088d135f2_story.html">logistics</a>, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/21/india-has-a-lesson-for-trump-national-emergencies-are-a-disaster-for-democracy/">politics</a>, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/inequality-in-india-oxfam-explainer/">economics</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1365317/Indias-brutal-history-of-assassinations-and-conflict.html">violence</a> and <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/politics/opinion-why-criminalisation-of-politics-is-unlikely-to-stop-2985601.html">law</a>. </p>
<p>This year, a new challenge has arisen in the form of social media – specifically the text messaging app WhatsApp, owned by Facebook. Hate speech, disinformation and scary rumors on the platform are already responsible for violence and deaths in India. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270154/original/file-20190419-1403-o0op9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A line of people wait to vote in the Indian election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-India-Kashmir-Elections/0ba2c4a16ada4952b1828367012c07bd/3/0">AP Photo/Dar Yasin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have been <a href="https://www.scu.edu/cas/communication/faculty/rohit-chopra/">studying the impact of the internet</a> on Indian political, cultural and social life for the better part of two decades. Under the strict protocols of the <a href="https://eci.gov.in/">Election Commission of India</a>, voting has proved one of the more <a href="https://scroll.in/article/911757/how-former-chief-election-commissioner-tn-seshan-tamed-the-criminalisation-of-indian-politics">robust signs of Indian democracy</a>. Voters turn out in large numbers, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-012-9115-6">particularly the poorer segments of the electorate</a>, making the process and its results a fascinating study and experiment in Indian politics. </p>
<p>The 2019 parliamentary elections, now underway, will show how social media affects Indian democratic life. They will also provide additional information about the nature of technological threats to democracy in general.</p>
<h2>Indian social media in 2014</h2>
<p>Two years before <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-russian-government-used-disinformation-and-cyber-warfare-in-2016-election-an-ethical-hacker-explains-99989">Russian troll farms infiltrated Facebook</a> in an attempt to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump">tilt the 2016 U.S. presidential election</a>, social media played a critical role in Indian politics. It helped the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hindu-nationalist-narendra-modi-sworn-in-as-indias-prime-minister/2014/05/26/d6f9ba54-25a6-48ac-9693-932132416cf6_story.html">hard-line candidate for prime minister</a>, Narendra Modi, come to power, though in a different way than the U.S. experienced. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270164/original/file-20190419-28106-1vi53gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bharatiya Janata Party supporters rallied passionately in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Elections/bbe95d58de234c30b711f095576c7283/4/0">AP Photo/Channi Anand</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party ran a <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/social-media-emerges-as-a-key-tool-in-indias-election/1931238.html">formidable social media campaign</a> on Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Twitter. The party’s online efforts complemented and supplemented its equally well-orchestrated campaign on the ground. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s trained social media teams, and a veritable army of enthusiastic volunteers, ensured that <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bjp-way-ahead-of-competition-on-social-media-in-2014-says-stanford-university-study/story-6Uq81HOwstzCwgCmiSyMWI.html">the party’s online presence</a> was much more active than its rivals.</p>
<p>The Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology group, as well as the party’s supporters, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Congress-vs-BJP-The-curious-case-of-trolls-and-politics/articleshow/23970818.cms">exploited the political power of social media</a>. They unleashed an often abusive barrage of criticism at the Congress Party, then-incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Bharatiya Janata Party opponents.</p>
<p>In the lead-up to the 2019 election, social media is being used in a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/11/tech/india-election-whatsapp-twitter-facebook/index.html">far uglier and more dangerous fashion</a>. The Bharatiya Janata Party even <a href="https://medium.com/disfact/narendra-modi-app-has-a-fake-news-problem-d60b514bb8f1">has its own official app</a>, which is <a href="https://qz.com/india/1534754/modis-namo-app-spreads-pro-bjp-fake-news-before-indian-elections/">rife with disinformation</a> and <a href="https://qz.com/india/1461262/indias-bjp-supporters-share-more-fake-news-than-others-says-bbc/">inflammatory propaganda</a> about non-Hindus, posted by party members and supporters. More broadly, WhatsApp is being used to disseminate rumors and disinformation to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/opinion/modi-india-election.html">spark fear among the populace</a>, particularly about people who are perceived as outsiders. </p>
<p>This connects with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s main message that Hindus should have first claim over India and that India should be a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/india-modi-culture/">culturally Hindu nation</a>, rather than a secular state governed by a diverse range of voices. The chief opposition, the Congress Party, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/fighting-whatsapp-disinformation-india-kerala-floods/569332/">seems to lack the Bharatiya Janata Party’s level</a> of reach and skills at weaponizing social media.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-1-fake-news-and-the-battle-for-information-113579">India Tomorrow part 1: fake news and the battle for information</a>
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<h2>Threats of violence</h2>
<p>Online, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/bjps-troll-army-bullies-abuses-and-fights-dirty-with-narendra-modi-as-the-general-1.1541941374832">volunteer army of internet trolls</a> blurs lines between troublemakers, genuine supporters and party officials. Their collective intensity, especially about Hindu nationalism, has <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/ahead-of-general-election-possibility-of-communal-violence-in-india-us-spymaster-119012901238_1.html">put everyone on edge</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2019-election-crucial-india-history-181120160323155.html">about violence</a> – including social media platforms, law enforcement officials and ordinary citizens. </p>
<p>The danger is real. By one count, the use – or misuse – of WhatsApp has already <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2187612/whatsapp-rumours-have-led-30-deaths-india-social-media">resulted in 30 deaths</a> in India. Many of these are not political events, but rather because of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44435127">fear of outsiders</a> spread through WhatsApp messages carrying <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2154436/indias-lynching-app-who-using-whatsapp-murder-weapon">fabricated warnings about strangers</a> allegedly coming to rural communities to kidnap children. </p>
<p>It’s not clear yet whether WhatsApp’s remedial measures, such as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/21/18191455/whatsapp-forwarding-limit-five-messages-misinformation-battle">blocking users from forwarding any single message more than five times</a>, will effectively counter the dissemination of dangerous and fake information. Earlier restrictions – including <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/20/17595478/whatsapp-message-forwarding-end-violent-lynching-india">limiting forwarding to 20 times</a> – did not.</p>
<h2>Getting benefits but avoiding responsibility</h2>
<p>Of course, media technologies do not make anything happen by themselves. Their effects depend on how they’re used. In the Indian context, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government and its digital allies have <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-violent-toll-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">legitimized an unusually high degree of bigotry</a> and virulence against minorities, particularly Muslims and the members of the lowest caste, called Dalits. </p>
<p>As a result, it’s easy for party members and social media volunteers to use digital platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/technology/india-elections-facebook.html">inflame sectarian sentiments</a>. In the run-up to the election, they have created a climate of <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/t/world/article/909746/162">general distrust</a>, fear and paranoia in which <a href="https://qz.com/india/1563318/indias-2019-election-is-threatened-by-fake-news-on-whatsapp/">disinformation</a> cannot be distinguished from credible facts.</p>
<p>My own research, <a href="https://harpercollins.co.in/book/the-virtual-hindu-rashtra/">explained in my forthcoming book</a>, suggests that the decentralized nature of online networks has allowed the Bharatiya Janata Party government to benefit from hateful and violent messages sent out by other hardline Hindu nationalist groups, while being able to avoid accountability or responsibility for those messages. It also enables the Bharatiya Janata Party to benefit politically from religious violence while at the same time diverting blame to WhatsApp or Facebook.</p>
<p>These developments in India raise deeper questions about the nature of social media communications. In particular, these abuses of social media may cause people to rethink the relationship between free speech – including forwarding messages from others – and violence. The outcome of the Indian election will be just one signal of how one society is beginning to wrestle with how new technologies are letting people reshape their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rohit Chopra is affiliated with Avaaz.org (as a consultant).</span></em></p>India’s parliamentary elections, now underway, will show how social media is affecting Indian society and government.Rohit Chopra, Associate Professor of Communication, Santa Clara UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1096982019-04-22T10:45:26Z2019-04-22T10:45:26ZHow artificial intelligence systems could threaten democracy<p>U.S. technology giant <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9378e7ee-5ae6-11e9-9dde-7aedca0a081a">Microsoft has teamed up with a Chinese military university</a> to develop <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/microsoft-worked-with-chinese-military-university-on-ai-1.3855553">artificial intelligence systems</a> that could potentially enhance government surveillance and censorship capabilities. Two <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5f5916fc-5be3-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40">U.S. senators publicly condemned</a> the partnership, but what the <a href="http://www.nudt.edu.cn/index_eng.htm">National Defense Technology University of China</a> wants from Microsoft isn’t the only concern.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OgVZmm4AAAAJ&hl=en">my research shows</a>, the advent of digital repression is profoundly affecting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2019.0003">the relationship between citizen and state</a>. New technologies are arming governments with unprecedented capabilities to monitor, track and surveil individual people. Even governments in democracies with strong traditions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-trumps-definition-of-the-rule-of-law-the-same-as-the-us-constitutions-77598">rule of law</a> find themselves tempted to abuse <a href="https://qz.com/813672/half-of-the-united-states-is-registered-in-police-facial-recognition-databases-and-its-completely-unregulated/">these new abilities</a>.</p>
<p>In states with <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2018-07-10/how-artificial-intelligence-will-reshape-global-order">unaccountable institutions and frequent human rights abuses</a>, AI systems will most likely cause greater damage. China is a prominent example. Its leadership has enthusiastically embraced AI technologies, and has set up the world’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/04/world/asia/xinjiang-china-surveillance-prison.html">most sophisticated</a> <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/22/china-xinjiang-surveillance-tech-spread/">surveillance state</a> in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/18/chinese-surveillance-company-tracking-25m-xinjiang-residents">Xinjiang province</a>, tracking citizens’ daily movements and smartphone use.</p>
<p>Its exploitation of these technologies <a href="https://www.georgesoros.com/2019/01/24/remarks-delivered-at-the-world-economic-forum-2/">presents a chilling model</a> for fellow autocrats and poses a direct threat to open democratic societies. Although there’s no evidence that other governments have replicated this level of AI surveillance, Chinese companies are actively exporting the same underlying technologies across the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270016/original/file-20190418-28097-1i209s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Surveillance in China’s Xinjiang province includes both extensive police patrols and surveillance cameras, like those on the building in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-Tracking-Face/cbbeb8deda184d58a0a1f17fab7e2564/9/0">AP Photo/Ng Han Guan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Increasing reliance on AI tools in the US</h2>
<p><a href="https://ai.stanford.edu/%7Enilsson/QAI/qai.pdf">Artificial intelligence systems</a> are everywhere in the modern world, helping run smartphones, internet search engines, digital voice assistants and Netflix movie queues. <a href="https://governanceai.github.io/US-Public-Opinion-Report-Jan-2019/">Many people fail to realize</a> how quickly AI is expanding, thanks to ever-increasing amounts of data to be analyzed, improving algorithms and advanced computer chips. </p>
<p>Any time more information becomes available and analysis gets easier, governments are interested – and not just authoritarian ones. In the U.S., for instance, the 1970s saw revelations that government agencies – such as the FBI, CIA and NSA – had set up <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_II.pdf">expansive domestic surveillance networks</a> to monitor and harass civil rights protesters, political activists and Native American groups. These issues haven’t gone away: Digital technology today has deepened the ability of even more agencies to conduct even more intrusive surveillance.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270024/original/file-20190418-28090-1lpg1vm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How fairly do algorithms predict where police should be most focused?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Criminaliteits_Anticipatie_Systeem.png">Arnout de Vries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, U.S. police have eagerly embraced AI technologies. They have begun using software that is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-big-data-analysis-of-police-activity-is-inherently-biased-72640">meant to predict where crimes will happen</a> to decide where to send officers on patrol. They’re also using <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/facial-recognition-gives-police-powerful-new-tracking-tool-it-s-n894936">facial recognition</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2018/12/13/fbi-plans-rapid-dna-network-quick-database-checks-arrestees/">DNA analysis</a> in criminal investigations. But analyses of these systems show the <a href="https://theconversation.com/congress-takes-first-steps-toward-regulating-artificial-intelligence-104373">data on which those systems are trained</a> are often biased, leading to <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-artificial-intelligence-deny-you-credit-73259">unfair outcomes</a>, such as <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">falsely determining that African Americans are more likely to commit crimes</a> than other groups.</p>
<h2>AI surveillance around the world</h2>
<p>In authoritarian countries, AI systems can directly abet domestic control and surveillance, helping <a href="https://www.power3point0.org/2018/01/25/hybrid-repression-online-and-offline-in-china-foretelling-the-human-rights-struggle-to-come/">internal security forces process massive amounts of information</a> – including social media posts, text messages, emails and phone calls – more quickly and efficiently. The police can identify social trends and <a href="https://www.apnews.com/bf75dd1c26c947b7826d270a16e2658a">specific people</a> who might threaten the regime based on the information uncovered by these systems. </p>
<p>For instance, the Chinese government has used AI in wide-scale crackdowns in regions that are home to ethnic minorities within China. Surveillance systems in Xinjiang and Tibet have been described as “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/19/962492-orwell-china-socialcredit-surveillance/">Orwellian</a>.” These efforts have included <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/business/china-xinjiang-uighur-dna-thermo-fisher.html">mandatory DNA samples</a>, Wi-Fi network monitoring and widespread facial recognition cameras, all connected to integrated data analysis platforms. With the aid of these systems, Chinese authorities have, according to the U.S. State Department, “arbitrarily detained” between <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2018&dlid=289037#wrapper">1 and 2 million people</a>.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3374575">research looks at 90 countries around the world</a> with government types ranging from closed authoritarian to flawed democracies, including Thailand, Turkey, Bangladesh and Kenya. I have found that Chinese companies are <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/01/22/we-need-to-get-smart-about-how-governments-use-ai-pub-78179">exporting AI surveillance technology</a> to at least 54 of these countries. Frequently, this technology is packaged as part of China’s flagship <a href="https://eng.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/">Belt and Road Initiative</a>, which is funding an extensive network of roads, railways, energy pipelines and telecommunications networks <a href="https://www.knightfrank.com/blog/2018/01/30/an-insight-into-the-belt-and-road-initiative">serving 60% of the world’s population</a> and economies that generate 40% of global GDP.</p>
<p>For instance, Chinese companies like <a href="https://e.huawei.com/us/solutions/industries/smart-city">Huawei</a> and ZTE are constructing “smart cities” in <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1333101">Pakistan</a>, <a href="https://e.huawei.com/en/case-studies/global/2017/201704261658">the Philippines</a> and <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2017-05/16/content_29372143.htm">Kenya</a>, featuring extensive built-in surveillance technology. For example, Huawei has outfitted <a href="https://bgc.com.ph/">Bonifacio Global City</a> in the Philippines with high-definition internet-connected cameras that provide “<a href="https://e.huawei.com/en/case-studies/global/2017/201704261658">24/7 intelligent security surveillance</a> with data analytics to detect crime and help manage traffic.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270029/original/file-20190418-28094-xukhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bonifacio Global City in the Philippines has a lot of embedded surveillance equipment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bonifacio_Global_City_2.jpg">alveo land/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/13/in-chinas-far-west-companies-cash-in-on-surveillance-program-that-targets-muslims/">Hikvision</a>, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/social-gadgets/article/2142497/malaysian-police-wear-chinese-start-ups-ai-camera-identify">Yitu</a> and <a href="https://qz.com/1248493/sensetime-the-billion-dollar-alibaba-backed-ai-company-thats-quietly-watching-everyone-in-china/">SenseTime</a> are supplying state-of-the-art facial recognition cameras for use in places like <a href="https://www.albawaba.com/news/china%E2%80%99s-newest-global-export-policing-dissidents-1139230">Singapore</a> – which announced the establishment of a surveillance program with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-surveillance/singapore-to-test-facial-recognition-on-lampposts-stoking-privacy-fears-idUSKBN1HK0RV">110,000 cameras mounted on lamp posts</a> around the city-state. Zimbabwe is creating a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/24/beijings-big-brother-tech-needs-african-faces/">national image database</a> that can be used for facial recognition.</p>
<p>However, selling advanced equipment for profit is different than sharing technology with an express geopolitical purpose. These new capabilities may plant the seeds for global surveillance: As governments become increasingly dependent upon Chinese technology to manage their populations and maintain power, they will face greater pressure to align with China’s agenda. But for now it appears that China’s primary motive is to dominate the market for new technologies and make lots of money in the process. </p>
<h2>AI and disinformation</h2>
<p>In addition to providing surveillance capabilities that are both sweeping and fine-grained, AI can help repressive governments manipulate available information and spread disinformation. These campaigns can be automated or automation-assisted, and deploy <a href="https://theconversation.com/solving-the-political-ad-problem-with-transparency-85366">hyper-personalized messages</a> directed at – or against – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/us/politics/saudi-image-campaign-twitter.html">specific people</a> or groups. </p>
<p>AI also underpins the technology commonly called “<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612501/inside-the-world-of-ai-that-forges-beautiful-art-and-terrifying-deepfakes/">deepfake</a>,” in which algorithms create <a href="https://theconversation.com/detecting-deepfake-videos-in-the-blink-of-an-eye-101072">realistic video and audio forgeries</a>. Muddying the waters between truth and fiction may become useful in a tight election, when one candidate could create fake videos showing an opponent doing and saying things that never actually happened.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cQ54GDm1eL0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An early deepfake video shows some of the dangers of advanced technology.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my view, policymakers in democracies should think carefully about the risks of AI systems to their own societies and to people living under authoritarian regimes around the world. A critical question is how many countries will adopt China’s model of digital surveillance. But it’s not just authoritarian countries feeling the pull. And it’s also not just Chinese companies spreading the technology: Many U.S. companies, Microsoft included, but <a href="https://www.axios.com/china-us-technology-surveillance-state-5672b822-fdde-45f9-ac77-e7b5574e9351.html">IBM, Cisco and Thermo Fisher</a> too, have provided sophisticated capabilities to nasty governments. The misuse of AI is not limited to autocratic states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Feldstein is a non-resident fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. </span></em></p>Even governments in democracies with strong traditions of rule of law find themselves tempted to abuse these new abilities.Steven Feldstein, Frank and Bethine Church Chair of Public Affairs & Associate Professor, School of Public Service, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.