Clemson tool aims to fight disinformation

‘ Spot the Troll’ looks to educate the electorate

Two researchers at Clemson University who study how foreign disinformation campaigns on social media interfere in U. S. elections launched an online tool to help people “Spot the Troll.”

A “troll” is a term for someone who posts inflammatory or offensive content online to flare tensions and seed conflict. “Troll farms” have popped up in such nations as Russia, Iran and China to sow disinformation on American social media, researcher Darren Linvill told The Greenville News and Independent Mail, part of the USA TODAY Network, in February.

Clemson faculty members Linvill and Patrick Warren study how state- sponsored disinformation influences American politics and ideologies through social media. Linvill and Warren work to identify troll accounts and shut them down.

The tool launched Tuesday and walks people through a number of shutdown social media profiles, asking the quiz taker to determine whether the accounts are real or the work of a troll. It then teaches ways to spot signs of a troll, such as the use of an attractive woman, or extremist political propaganda. It is aimed at helping anyone “identify the markers of inauthenticity” online, Warren said.

“I did take this … it is excellent and really good at trying to educate others,” Clemson President James Clements said. The quiz was created with funding from Clemson’s Committee on Philanthropy, Clements said.

The goal of these accounts is to drive America apart, to “further entrench” Americans into their ideological silos, which makes compromise and civility harder to maintain, Linvill explained.

“They push ideologies in two extreme directions, making it harder and harder for us to make compromises,” Linvill said.

In a recent media call, Linvill added that the pandemic and civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s killing are “golden opportunities” for trolls to increase conflict online.

“They are engaged with whatever major social disruption, going on in the U. S. at the time, and certainly issues around race have been central to their approach from the very beginning. And actually, if you pushed all the way back, back when the Soviets were doing propaganda, they try to exacerbate those differences,” Warren said of the Cold Warera tactics employed by the Soviet Union, now Russia.

Work to thwart trolls grows

While Russian, Chinese and Iranian troll operations are a threat to national security, Linvill said “domestic activities” are real, too.

Recently, Linvill said a right- wing activist created a fake Twitter account posing as an “Antifa,” or anti- facist organization, member “suggesting that they were gonna move into the suburbs and burn down homes.”

“It’s not just state actors it’s also Americans doing it to ourselves, and that’s going to be a growing issue I think,” he said.

Warren and Linvill have led the way for troll research, working for years with federal defense agencies, Facebook and Twitter to shut down hundreds of fake accounts.

“While we’re on this call, Facebook and Twitter announced they shut down another group of Russian accounts … so this continues to this day,” Warren said over Zoom.

And as worries over foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election loom, Warren added that he and Linvill are working with the Commission on Presidential Debates to monitor social media during and after debates.

Trolls “disrupted the conversations” online during 2016 presidential debates by spreading fake news and inciting conflict. “It’s to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Warren said.

In 2016, reports of Russian interference in Donald Trump’s election circulated widely, Warren said with more attention on this issue this election cycle, the threat may be lessened but it’s still credible.

“The stakes are way higher this time, too,” Warren said.

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY Patrick Warren, left, and Darren Linvill, study foreign disinformation and work with the government to thwart “trolls.”