Governments use cyber trolls against their own citizens

Governements deploy cyber troops against their own citizens, manipulating public opinion on social media. This is not exactly news to many people, especially people on Steemit, but the extent to which some governments use these manipulation techinques may come as a surprise even to the informed citizen.

According to a study published by the University of Oxford, we're dealing with a widespread phenomenon, used not only by authoritarian regimes, but by Western democracies as well. The paper, called ‘Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers : A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation’, examines government manipulation practices in 28 countries, including United States, UK, Germany, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Manipulation tactics varied among these countries, from using fake accounts to place comments on Facebook or Twitter to targeting people individually.
"I don't think people realize how much governments are using these tools to reach them. It's a lot more hidden," Samantha Bradshaw, the report's lead author declared. Democratic governments" are using the same tools and techniques as the authoritarian regimes", Bradshaw added. In other words, American or British authorities are not ashamed to use the same tactics as Turkey's Erdogan.
In the US, the report uncovered a series of government organizations using cyber manipulation, among them DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), US Cyber Command, US Agency for International Development, the Air Force and the Pentagon.
In 2010, DARPA funded a $8.9 million study to see how social media could be used to influence people’s behavior by tracking how they responded to content online.

What exactly do these cyber troops do? The techniques used differ from offering users positive comments to trolling them.

• Israel opted for positive engagement with individuals critical of the government, through its 350 official government social media accounts.
• Saudi Arabia tended to divert attention from unfavorable topics being discussed by using cyber troops to spam trending hashtags.
• US, Russia and China were recorded as using a combination of positive, negative and distracting engagement on social media.

Troubling as these findings might be it is worth remembering it is only the tip of the iceberg. As the study's author puts it, there are "almost certainly cyber troop operations that have not been publicly documented."
The Oxford researchers concerned themselves only with governmental organizations and political parties using cyber manipulation, but it is obvious they are not the only ones. Large corporations use cyber troops and trolls to sway public opinion in favor of some project that might be controversial. Big Pharma has legions of trolls ready to be deployed whenever it becomes necessary to promote a new drug or vaccine or attack anti-vaccine opinions.

The next time you find yourself watching the latest viral "cute baby" video you should ask yourself what is it that you're being distracted from? Is it budgetary cuts the government doesn't want you to notice? Is it sending troops to some God forsaken countries for reasons you don't need to know? How much have youu heard about the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's European Tour to promote his anti-Iranian agenda? Not much, I guess - and no, he did not manage to sway the Europeans so far. But that's something you don't need to know.

Thanks for reading

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