Participatory Propaganda in Seven Simple Steps

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Through a mixture of reposting content across
multiple sites, linking back, adding such articles
to comment sections on other media sites
and message boards, and encouraging social
shares, propagandists are able to flood news
and search feeds with the same message,
driving the opposition’s counter message down
in rankings. Through the active sharing of such
content by supporters, both on social media and
in other forums, the propaganda model remains
participatory. This approach helps to account for
the upwards of 40% of directed organic traffic 90 to
the right-wing sites Albright analysed.
BOTNETS
Lobby groups, 91 governments, 92 and businesses, 93
are among the many who are using astroturfing
and bots to distort the information space for
strategic purposes. Posting fake comments and
reviews aims to harness the cognitive bias of
“social proof”. 94 Bots had a “small but strategic
role” in Brexit Twitter chatter with 1% of accounts
generating one third of all messaging on the topic, 95
and bots have also been identified in Venezuelan
political discourse. 96
Astroturfing is the use of fake online accounts
or other means to make a message appear to
be coming from another source, helping foster
the illusion of grassroots support. A botnet is a
series of devices connected via the internet and
controlled by an owner who uses them to execute
tasks, such as sharing a specific post on Twitter.
Botnets can manipulate algorithms. Twitter bots
gamed Google’s algorithm for displaying “real
time news” into promoting disinformation during
a 2010 senate election in Massachusetts. 97
During the 2016 election, pro-Trump Twitter Bots
dominated discussion about the U.S. election 5 to
1 over pro-Clinton messaging, and “strategically
98
colonised pro-Clinton hashtags,” according