‘Online manipulation of public opinion key threat to democracy’

LONDON: Social media manipulation of public opinion is a growing threat to democracies around the world and nations where disinformation-for-hire companies are operating rose from 25 to 48, according to the 2020 media manipulation survey from a University of Oxford institute, which found people in 81 countries are now targeted in this manner, including India.

The manipulation relates to what the Oxford Internet Institute refers to as “computational propaganda”, with attacks classified into four broad types: progovernment messaging, anti-opposition campaigns, suppression of participation by trolling or harassment and campaigns meant to polarise citizens.

These, they said, were carried out by “cyber troops”, or “government or political party actors tasked with manipulating public opinion online”. The report added the number of countries where such cyber troop activity was up from 70 in 2019 to 81 in 2020. There was a bigger rise seen in private contractors who carry out such campaigns, with 48 countries showing the existence of such companies in 2020 as compared to 25 in 2019.

Largely, governments, public relations firms and political parties produced misinformation on an industrial scale, the report said, while adding that disinformation was a common strategy, affecting more than 93% of the 81 countries where such campaigns were recorded globally.

“Our report shows misinformation has become more professionalised and is now produced on an industrial scale. Now, more than ever, the public needs to be able to rely on trustworthy information about government policy and activity,” said Philip Howard, director of the institute and the report’s co- author. “Social media companies need to raise their game by increasing their efforts to flag misinformation and close fake accounts without the need for government intervention, so the public has access to high-quality information,” he added.

In India, they found actors based in the country attacked domestic targets, while Indians were also the target of Pakistanbased misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Indian actors did not appear to target other nations. India was among nations with ‘high cyber troop activity’, which meant “large numbers of staff, and large budgetary expenditure on psychological operations or information warfare” are deployed.