Internet manipulation refers to media manipulation on the Internet.
Such manipulation may be conducted for purposes of propaganda, discreditation, harming corporate or political competitors, improving personal or brand reputation or plain trolling among other things. To accomplish these objectives, online influencers, hired professionals and/or software − typically Internet bots such as social bots, votebots and clickbots − may be used.
Cognitive hacking refers to a cyberattack that aims to change users' perceptions and corresponding behaviors.
Internet manipulation is sometimes also used to describe selective Internet censorship or violations of net neutrality.
Such manipulation may be conducted for purposes of propaganda, discreditation, harming corporate or political competitors, improving personal or brand reputation or plain trolling among other things. To accomplish these objectives, online influencers, hired professionals and/or software − typically Internet bots such as social bots, votebots and clickbots − may be used.
Cognitive hacking refers to a cyberattack that aims to change users' perceptions and corresponding behaviors.
Internet manipulation is sometimes also used to describe selective Internet censorship or violations of net neutrality.
Issues
- High-arousal emotion virality: It has been found that content that evokes high-arousal emotions (e.g. awe, anger or anxiety) is more viral and that this also hold when surprisingness, interestingness, or usefulness is taken into consideration.
- Simplicity over complexity: Providing and perpetuating simple explanations for complex circumstances may be used for online manipulation. Often such are easier to believe, come in advance of any adequate investigations and have a higher virality than any complex, nuanced explanations and information.
- Peer-influence: Prior collective ratings of an web content influences ones own perception of it. In 2015 it was shown that the perceived beauty of a piece of artwork in an online context varies with external influence as confederate ratings were manipulated by opinion and credibility for participants of an experiment who were asked to evaluate a piece of artwork. Furthermore, on Reddit it has been found that content that initially gets a few down- or upvotes often continues going negative, or vice versa. This is referred to as "bandwagon/snowball voting" by reddit users and administrators.
- Filter bubbles: Echo chambers and filter bubbles might be created by Website administrators or moderators locking out people with altering viewpoints or by establishing certain rules or by the typical member viewpoints of online sub/communities or Internet "tribes"
- Confirmation bias & manipulated prevalence: Fake news does not need to be read but has an effect in quantity and emotional effect by its headlines and sound bites alone. Specific points, views, issues and people's apparent prevalence can be amplified, stimulated or simulated.
- Information timeliness and uncorrectability: Clarifications, conspiracy busting and fake news exposure often come late when the damage is already done and/or do not reach the bulk of the audience of the associated misinformation
- Psychological targeting: Social media activities and other data can be used to analyze the personality of people and predict their behavior and preferences. Dr Michal Kosinski developed such a procedure. Such can be used for media or information tailored to a person's psyche e.g. via Facebook. According to reports such may have played an integral part in Donald Trump's win.
Algorithms, echo chambers and polarization
The proliferation of online sources represents a vector leading to an increase in media pluralism but algorithms used by social networking platforms and search engines
to provide users with a personalized experience based on their
individual preferences represent a challenge to pluralism, restricting
exposure to differing viewpoints and news feed. This is commonly
referred to as "echo-chambers" and "filter-bubbles".
With the help of algorithms, filter bubbles influence users' choices and
perception of reality by giving the impression that a particular point
of view or representation is widely shared. Following the 2016 referendum of membership of the European Union in the United Kingdom and the United States presidential elections,
this gained attention as many individuals confessed their surprise at
results that seemed very distant from their expectations. The range of
pluralism is influenced by the personalized individualization of the
services and the way it diminishes choice.
Research on echo chambers from Flaxman, Goel, and Rao, Pariser, and Grömping suggest that use of social media and search engines tends to increase ideological distance among individuals.
Comparisons between online and off-line segregation have indicated how segregation tends to be higher in face-to-face interactions with neighbors, co-workers, or family members, and reviews of existing research have indicated how available empirical evidence does not support the most pessimistic views about polarization. A study conducted by researchers from Facebook and the University of Michigan, for example, has suggested that individuals’ own choices drive algorithmic filtering, limiting exposure to a range of content.
While algorithms may not be causing polarization, they could amplify
it, representing a significant component of the new information
landscape.
Research and use by intelligence and military agencies
Some of the leaked JTRIG operation methods/techniques
The Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group unit of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British intelligence agency was revealed as part of the global surveillance disclosures in documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and its mission scope includes using "dirty tricks" to "destroy, deny, degrade [and] disrupt" enemies.
Core-tactics include injecting false material onto the Internet in
order to destroy the reputation of targets and manipulating online
discourse and activism
for which methods such as posting material to the Internet and falsely
attributing it to someone else, pretending to be a victim of the target
individual whose reputation is intended to be destroyed and posting
"negative information" on various forums may be used.
Known as "Effects" operations, the work of JTRIG had become a "major part" of GCHQ's operations by 2010. The unit's online propaganda efforts (named "Online Covert Action") utilize "mass messaging" and the "pushing [of] stories" via the medium of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Online "false flag" operations are also used by JTRIG against targets. JTRIG have also changed photographs on social media sites, as well as emailing and texting colleagues and neighbors with "unsavory information" about the targeted individual. In June 2015, NSA files published by Glenn Greenwald revealed new details about JTRIG's work at covertly manipulating online communities.
The disclosures also revealed the technique of "credential harvesting",
in which journalists could be used to disseminate information and
identify non-British journalists who, once manipulated, could give
information to the intended target of a secret campaign, perhaps
providing access during an interview. It is unknown whether the journalists would be aware that they were being manipulated.
Furthermore, Russia is frequently accused of financing "trolls" to post pro-Russian opinions across the Internet. The Internet Research Agency
has become known for employing hundreds of Russians to post propaganda
online under fake identities in order to create the illusion of massive
support. In 2016 Russia was accused of sophisticated propaganda campaigns to spread fake news
with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton and helping
Republican Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election as well as
undermining faith in American democracy.
In a 2017 report Facebook
publicly stated that its site has been exploited by governments for the
manipulation of public opinion in other countries – including during
the presidential elections in the US and France.
It identified three main components involved in an information
operations campaign: targeted data collection, content creation and
false amplification and includes stealing and exposing information
that's not public; spreading stories, false or real, to third parties
through fake accounts; and fake accounts being coordinated to manipulate
political discussion, such as amplifying some voices while repressing
others.
In politics
In 2016 Andrés Sepúlveda
disclosed that he manipulated public opinion to rig elections in Latin
America. According to him with a budget of $600,000 he led a team of
hackers that stole campaign strategies, manipulated social media to create false waves of enthusiasm and derision, and installed spyware in opposition offices to help Enrique Peña Nieto, a right-of-center candidate, win the election.
In the run up to India's 2014 elections,
both the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and the Congress party were
accused of hiring "political trolls" to talk favourably about them on
blogs and social media.
The Chinese government is also believed to run a so-called "50-cent army" (a reference to how much they are said to paid) and the "Internet Water Army" to reinforce favourable opinion towards it and the Communist Party of China (CCP) as well as to suppress dissent.
In December 2014 the Ukrainian information ministry was launched
to counter Russian propaganda with one of its first tasks being the
creation of social media accounts (also known as the i-Army) and amassing friends posing as residents of eastern Ukraine.
Twitter suspended a number of bot accounts that appeared to be spreading pro-Saudi Arabian tweets about the disappearance of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trolling and other applications
In April 2009, Internet trolls of 4chan voted Christopher Poole, founder of the site, as the world's most influential person of 2008 with 16,794,368 votes by an open Internet poll conducted by Time magazine. The results were questioned even before the poll completed, as automated voting programs and manual ballot stuffing were used to influence the vote. 4chan's interference with the vote seemed increasingly likely, when it was found that reading the first letter of the first 21 candidates in the poll spelled out a phrase containing two 4chan memes: "mARBLECAKE. ALSO, THE GAME".
Jokesters and politically oriented hacktivists may share sophisticated knowledge of how to manipulate the Web and social media.
Countermeasures
In Wired
it was noted that nation-state rules such as compulsory registration
and threats of punishment are not adequate measures to combat the
problem of online bots.
To guard against the issue of prior ratings influencing perception several websites such as Reddit have taken steps such as hiding the vote-count for a specified time.
Some other potential measures under discussion are flagging posts for being likely satire or false.
For instance in December 2016 Facebook announced that disputed articles
will be marked with the help of users and outside fact checkers.
The company seeks ways to identify 'information operations' and fake
accounts and suspended 30,000 accounts before the presidential election
in France in a strike against information operations.
Inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee considers putting few companies in charge of deciding what is or isn't true a risky proposition and states that openness can make the web more truthful. As an example he points to Wikipedia
which, while not being perfect, allows anyone to edit with the key to
its success being not just the technology but the governance of the site
− its coordination of countless volunteers and ways of determining what
is or isn't true.
Furthermore, various kinds of software may be used to combat this problem such as fake checking software or voluntary browser extensions that store every website one reads or use the browsing history to deliver fake revelations to those who read a fake story after some kind of consensus was found on the falsehood of a story.
Furthermore, Daniel Suarez asks society to value critical analytic thinking and suggests education reforms such as the introduction of 'formal logic' as a discipline in schools and training in media literacy and objective evaluation.
Research
German chancellor Angela Merkel has issued the Bundestag to deal with the possibilities of political manipulation by social bots or fake news.
