Is that online outrage you’re seeing really grassroots, or just ‘astroturfing’?
Is that online outrage you’re seeing really grassroots, or just ‘astroturfing’?
This article is deep in "no shit" territory - we've seen lots of chatter about online interference since Trump's first election. The part that's interesting is the call to action
Digital platforms provide unreliable or narrow data on inauthentic behaviour, and they’re not currently required to share any public-interest data with Canadian policy-makers or civil society; combatting online astroturfing will require both increased transparency and platform accountability. Canada should require that these platforms share data with researchers so that the public can understand the prevalence of information threats, and so that policy-makers and civil society can effectively advocate for better digital regulation and platform design.
And the effect of small numbers of users:
We’ve found evidence that very small groups of users are having an outsized impact in online discussions about Canadian elections. In the 2023 Alberta election, just 200 users published 12 per cent of all tweets sent to candidates and political parties. In both the Alberta election and the Toronto mayoral by-election that same year, 50 or fewer users generated over 10 per cent of all abusive content we monitored. These highly active power users (or power abusers) could include high proportions of astroturfers. Regardless of their intentions, granting outsized influence to any very small group of users skews our perceptions of public opinion.
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Who can even tell anymore? As a long time lurker of various piracy threads on various platforms, I consider every post about “resistance” to be false flag operation. Nice try, FBI ! To be sure, there is much to be outraged about, but dis- and mis-information abounds.
I get that vibe whenever I browse r/all on Reddit. It seems like dueling astroturf attempts.