Foreign actors and extremist groups are using disinformation on Twitter and other social networks to further inflame the protests across America, experts say
Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.Experts say Americans are being manipulated on social media by fake posts about unrest across the nation.
A former chief information officer of the White House says groups use fake photos and videos to manipulate Americans into emotional responses. Researchers say social media following the death of George Floyd is similar to a social media campaign from a Russian state group that manipulated the online discourse around the Black Lives Matter movement. Twitter may be more subject to misleading posts than its peers, experts say. The social network has recently started labeling misleading posts. Twitter says "When we identify information operation campaigns that we can reliably attribute to state-backed activity — either domestic or foreign-led — we will disclose them to the public."Disinformation seeding discord on social media – some spread by foreign actors – is adding to a confusing whirlwind of news coverage of unrest across the nation, researchers and experts say. Media and citizen journalists are posting video, images, and accounts of scattered and chaotic protest events in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, and the posts are being reshared broadly. The result is an often overwhelming stream of media from multiple sites and sources, and experts say audiences must be aware that the situation is being manipulated. "People need to be aware that these events on the ground are being spun for political reasons," says Angie Drobnic Holan, editor-in-chief ofthe Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking news service of the Poynter Institute journalism think tank. Much of that spin likely comes from forces outside of America, the experts warn. "Were there foreign-backed disinformation accounts targeting Americans this weekend? Absolutely. I am positive that was happening," says Molly McGrew, a writer and lecturer on Russian influence who advises the non-profit political groupIn fact, University of Washington researchers who found Russian influence in the discourse around the Black Lives Matters civil rights movement in 2016 tell Business Insider that they see the same signs from over the weekend. "There are definitely a number of information operations at play here constructing fake personas and parties that are presenting themselves as activists that may well be state-sponsored agencies," says researcher Ahmer Arif, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington. "I'm really worried about infiltration of [online] activist movements by domestic provocateurs and foreign agents — who will try to shape these movements towards their own objectives," another member of the research team, University of Washington professor and researcher Kate Starbird,Disinformation is sometimes dismissed as just the work of automated "bots" or troll accounts mocking people, but the impact can be far greater, experts say. "It is something people should take seriously," says Theresa Payton, former White House chief information officer under President George W. Bush and author of about online disinformation. "Groups that conduct disinformation and manipulation either want you to react with an emotion or don't want you to take an action."showing a large explosion next to the Washington Monument. It was tweeted as a photo from the weekend's protests, in which fires did burn in different parts of Washington, DC, and other cities. But this dramatic photo was in fact from the fictional television show "Designated Survivor." "People might see that photo and think, 'That's awful. I don't support that,' And not be an ally to peaceful civil rights movements. That would be a real shame," Payton says. nationwide unrest surrounding the death of George Floyd because users often follow multiple accounts for news on Twitter, and posts come at a rapid pace. Users may also be more likely to follow accounts from people they do not know, the experts say. Twitter hashtags can also spread misinformation quickly. "Hashtags can really be gamed," says independent researcher Darius Kazemi, who has studied the influence of bots, or automated accounts, that break Twitter's rules to spread misinformation. "Someone trying to sew chaos and create noise on both sides can get a hashtag going and pull real, well-intentioned people into the spread of misleading videos and images, or bogus news accounts." Once human users share misinformation, bots can amplify it a great deal, he says.
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