Citation

Trends in Online Influence Efforts Version 2

Author:
Martin, Diego A.; Shapiro, Jacob N.; Ilhardt, Julia G.
Year:
2020

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) create novel opportuni- ties for a wide range of political actors. Foreign governments have used social media to influence politics in a range of countries by promoting propaganda, advocating controversial viewpoints, and spreading disinformation. This report updates previ- ous work with data on 76 such foreign influence efforts (FIE) targeting 30 different countries from 2013 through 2019, as well as 20 domestic influence efforts (DIE) in which governments targeted their own citizens. Influence efforts (IEs) are de- fined as: (i) coordinated campaigns by a state or the ruling party in an autocracy to impact one or more specific aspects of politics at home or in another state, (ii) through media channels, including social media, by (iii) producing content designed to appear indigenous to the target state. The objective of such campaigns can be quite broad and to date have included shaping election outcomes at various levels, shifting the political agenda on topics ranging from health to security, and encour- aging political polarization. Our data draw on more than 920 media reports and 380 research articles/reports to identify IEs, track their progress, and classify their features.