Theresa May has accused Russia of “weaponising information” and planting fake stories and images on the internet, to influence and undermine the West. Grave concerns are growing at possible internet meddling in the democratic processes of the UK and the US.
Fake accounts on social media platforms, coordinated to influence the US elections in 2016, have been discussed at US Congress committees. A ‘troll factory’ has been mentioned elsewhere, with bloggers paid to influence social networks and the comments sections of Western internet sites.
Besides Russia, these tactics are used in other countries across the world, with ‘cyber armies’ of trolls striving to influence opinion and control information. /What about here in Malta? There is no reason why it could not happen here. Perhaps a system is in place even now, or being formed. How could we identify and uncover it?
During the 2013 general election, it was already flagged in our media that political trolls could be at work. The suspicion was that groups had been recruited to follow online newspaper articles and social media, and post comments to influence opinion against the then government.
This implied that people posing as ordinary citizens were actively pushing political agendas in an organised manner. Their intention was not to debate and inform, but to spin and manipulate. Other users on the internet then share these dubious posts without thinking, unintentionally helping to spread purposely misleading information.
Access to the Civil Society Network’s Facebook page was recently targeted and blocked, together with some activists’ personal Facebook accounts. This happened just as the group was disseminating information about protests on freedom of expression and the rule of law following Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.
CSN founder Michael Briguglio has also highlighted that partisan activists rally heavily behind government spokespersons on Facebook, to attack and discredit critics. Journalist Caroline Muscat has picked up this thread, writing that a range of writers, from columnists to internet trolls, are spinning facts to alter perception in favour of the government, while attacking critics and twisting their arguments. She suggested that this can only be achieved through a highly-organised system working behind the scenes to make it happen.
These platforms are being abused to shape opinion and the democratic process in unhealthy ways
An immediate way to combat choreographed internet trolling, from a partisan perspective, is for an alternative ‘keyboard army’ to push a different agenda. A rising pitch of polarising debate is nothing if not unhealthy, but this is what is developing. Facebook is not a neutral technology platform. It significantly influences current events and politics.
The Maltese are high users of social media, practically addicted. One of Facebook’s founders Sean Parker explained that they aimed at finding ways to consume as much of people’s time and conscious attention as possible. They therefore “needed to give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post… you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”. Receiving feedback provides social validation. Facebook was in fact designed to be addictive.
Some people present different, alternative sides of themselves on Facebook, such as with more extroverted, outspoken behaviour than in their everyday lives. Behind the safety of the screen, they are comfortable to reveal more about themselves than they do in face-to-face encounters. Social networks alter the ways we build relationships. They provide information that we read and exchange, which is unfiltered, unedited and increasingly manipulated.
Social networks are used to connect with friends and colleagues, but people obtain their news there too. This is not checked by editors. Facebook is not interested in the quality of its content, but only in how often it is shared and liked. This system generates money through advertising. But it can also distort and corrode reality.
Facebook creates biases and influences opinion, by using complex algorithms which push up items on your newsfeed which fit your profile, and suppress others. The more you click or like certain types of posts, the more you will have of them. Your newsfeed does not give a balanced picture, but one based on your preferences. It perpetuates biases which can warp reality. People look for those things which they want to hear, casting aside divergent views. Instead of connecting people, social networks can thereby polarise and divide them.
To compound this, users often ‘unfriend’ people whose approach and ideas they dislike, tightening up their echo chamber until they are only exposed to like-minded people, reinforcing their world view.
An urgent debate about the effects of social networks is emerging. They are an entirely new phenomenon in history and it is unclear how they should be handled or controlled. These platforms had promised to facilitate more freedom of expression and an informed, connected public, but they are being abused to shape opinion and the democratic process in unhealthy ways. The power of social networks to manipulate political outcomes has been recognised, but it is still uncertain what can or should be done about it.
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