A report by the Oxford Internet Institute has found that organised social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017 with 70 countries now sharing misinformation online. It also claims that 45 democracies, politicians and political parties used computational propaganda tools to gather fake followers or spreading manipulated media to garner voter support.
In 26 authoritarian states, government entities used computational propaganda as a way to control information, suppress public opinion and press freedom, discredit criticism, and drown out political dissent, such as China’s attempt to quash recent protests in Hong Kong.
Online propaganda and misinformation are gaining traction for three simple reasons: it\’s cheap, it\’s easy, and there are little to no consequences. Setting up a social media campaign is a pretty low-risk endeavour, and it can have wide-reaching influence. It can be difficult to verify the claims made as well as who is financing these campaigns. Much of the onus of this verification is placed on the social media outlets themselves, which in many cases have grown too big to effectively manage the huge volume of users and content being posted. Even if a bad actor is caught, they rarely face legal repercussions and usually just get a slap on the wrist, such as their account being banned. By the time that happens, some damage has likely already been done. New accounts are easy to make, and the cycle continues.