Oxfordo Mokslininkai Apie Vyriausybes

Oxfordo mokslininkai skelbia, kad vyriausybės socialinius tinklus naudoja SAVO TIKSLAMS, manipuliuodamos savo šalių piliečiais:

Government 'Cyber Troops' Manipulate Facebook, Twitter, Study Says

An Oxford study found authoritarian and democratic governments game social media to shape public opinion.

By Adam Satariano
2017 m. liepos 17 d. 19:00; GMT+3

Governments around the world are enlisting "cyber troops" who manipulate Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets to steer public opinion, spread misinformation and undermine critics, according to a new report from the University of Oxford.

Adding to growing evidence of government-sponsored efforts to use online tools to influence politics, researchers found 29 countries using social media to shape opinion domestically or with foreign audiences. The tactics are deployed by authoritarian regimes, but also democratically-elected governments, the authors said.

"Social media makes propaganda campaigns much stronger and potentially more effective than in the past," said Samantha Bradshaw, the report's lead author and a researcher at Oxford's Computational Propaganda Research Project. "I don't think people realize how much governments are using these tools to reach them. It's a lot more hidden."

Online behavior of the government-backed groups varies widely, from commenting on Facebook and Twitter posts, to targeting people individually. Journalists are harassed by government groups in Mexico and Russia, while cyber troops in Saudi Arabia flood negative Twitter posts about the regime with unrelated content and hashtags to make it harder for people to find the offending post. In the Czech Republic, the government is more likely to post a fact-check response to something they see as inaccurate, said the report.

Governments also use fake accounts to mask where the material is coming from. In Serbia, fake accounts are used to promote the government's agenda, and bloggers in Vietnam spread favorable information. Meanwhile, government actors in Argentina, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela and elsewhere use automation software -- known as "bots" -- to spread social media posts in ways that mimics human users.

"Cyber troops are a pervasive and global phenomenon," said the report published by the group that is studying how digital tools are being used to manipulate public opinion.

Taigi, Ponai Mėgstantys Prasivardžiuoti - galit į Samokslo Teoretikus įrašyti Oxfordo Mokslininkus:))