Digital Propaganda: The Power of Influencers

Attempts to manipulate public opinion using social media and
emerging information communication technologies (ICTs) continue to
proliferate internationally. Governments, corporations, extremist
groups, and a wide variety of other entities around the globe now
commonly use both automated bots and anonymous human “sockpuppet”
accounts in efforts to amplify and suppress particular streams of
information during elections, security crises, and other pivotal
events. They use these same tools to sow disinformation and engage
in organized political trolling campaigns. However, the
technologies and tactics used in these internet-based “influence
operations” are changing. This essay leverages insights from over
70 interviews with people who both produce and track online
manipulation campaigns. It compares emerging trends in digital
disinformation and computational propaganda across the globe using
qualitative data from 12 countries—Burma, Brazil, Egypt, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey,
Ukraine, and the United States. In essence, internet-borne
manipulation efforts are evolving from relatively unsophisticated
“inorganic” campaigns pushed by social media bots and towards more
complex “semi-organic” efforts combining both coordinated human
users and artificial intelligence software. Additional, related,
trends include the increased coercive political use of social media
influencers and encrypted and private messaging applications.