Social media platforms do not just circulate political ideas, they
support manipulative disinformation campaigns. While some of these
disinformation campaigns are carried out directly by individuals, most
are waged by software, commonly known as bots, programmed to perform
simple, repetitive, robotic tasks. Some social media bots collect and
distribute legitimate information, while others communicate with and
harass people, manipulate trending algorithms, and inundate systems
with spam. Campaigns made up of bots, fake accounts, and trolls can be
coordinated by one person, or a small group of people, to give the
illusion of large-scale consensus. Some political regimes use
political bots to silence opponents and to push official state
messaging, to sway the vote during elections, and to defame critics,
human rights defenders, civil society groups, and journalists. This
book argues that such automation and platform manipulation, amounts to
a new political communications mechanism that Samuel Woolley and
Philip N. Noward call "computational propaganda." This differs from
older styles of propaganda in that it uses algorithms, automation, and
human curation to purposefully distribute misleading information over
social media networks while it actively learns from and mimicks real
people so as to manipulate public opinion across a diverse range of
platforms and device networks. This book includes cases of
computational propaganda from nine countries (both democratic and
authoritarian) and four continents (North and South America, Europe,
and Asia), covering propaganda efforts over a wide array of social
media platforms and usage in different types of political processes
(elections, referenda, and during political crises).
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Political Parties, Politicians, and Political Manipulation on Social Media
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780190931438
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic US
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter