#Exclusive professional perspective, authoritative analysis of current affairs#
Leonid Bershidsky
Bloomberg columnist, senior media person
The spread of false information and deceptive political information on the Internet is of course harmful, but they are not necessarily the impact of governments and political actors on social media. The worst abuse of the Internet. Rational people resist propaganda, while irrational people only consume news that appeals to their “confirmation bias.” However, no one is immune to massive personal attacks.
In a report, human rights lawyer Carly Nyst and Oxford University researcher Nick Monaco criticized government-backed online "trolling," or harassment in digital spaces. critics) conducted preliminary research. Its cases come from different countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain , Ecuador , the Philippines, Turkey , the United States and Venezuela . They complement what is currently known about Russian troll attack methods—the Russians’ achievements in abusing digital platforms are by far the most interesting.
The stories included in the study, commissioned by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Institute for the Future, are in some ways similar. Thousands of social network accounts — all run by humans, as well as bots designed to increase their attack power — unite to attack anyone who dares to criticize a regime or political figure. This man is always accused of being a foreign spy and a traitor. Memes and cartoons are used to insult targets. Comments, posts and tweets are often abusive; female targets, such as Turkish journalist Ceyda Karan and her Filipino colleague Maria Ressa, are often threatened with rape. The basic idea behind these campaigns is to make the target feel like his or her work or opinions have incited public outrage, while also drowning out the target's voice with thousands of unbridled digital voices.
In countries that tend to be more authoritarian, these online activities are often run by pro-government groups. This was the case in Russia early in the decade. According to a report by the Institute for the Future, the same is true in Azerbaijan today. In the country, a group called Ireli openly harasses opponents of the regime online. However, the professionalization of "swear wars" is becoming a major trend. Russia's Internet Research Agency, mentioned in the indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller, is just one example of how corporate-like entities operate in a war of words. In Ecuador, a company called Ribeney Sociedad Anonima won a contract from the government to provide services for "scrabble warfare." The Bahrain government has hired Western "black PR" firms to attack critics.
In countries that are less authoritarian and where elections are still meaningful, the phenomenon of "swear wars" often arises from election campaigns. In Ecuador, Rafael Correa created a troll army for the 2012 election and continued to use it after winning. In the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte hired trolls to work for his 2016 presidential campaign and placed top performers in government jobs. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata party runs an "information technology cell" whose thousands of members receive daily messages on propaganda topics and targets. instructions.
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News background: WhatsApp fake news caused murder in India
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