Govts increase efforts to manipulate information on social media, report says

Online manipulation and propaganda played an important role in elections, not only in the US but in 17 other countries around the globe in the year ending May 31, according to the latest Freedom of the Net report from Freedom House — a nonprofit organisation that promotes democracy and civil liberties.

Governments around the world have dramatically increased their efforts to manipulate information on social media, threatening the notion of the internet as a liberating technology, according to the report.

Since June 2016, 32 of the 65 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net saw internet freedom deteriorate. Most notable declines were documented in Ukraine, Egypt, and Turkey.

The content manipulation contributed to a seventh consecutive year of overall decline in internet freedom, along with a rise in disruptions to mobile internet service.

For the third consecutive year, China was the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom, followed by Syria and Ethiopia. 

In Ethiopia, the government shut down mobile networks for nearly two months as part of a state of emergency declared in October 2016 amid large-scale anti-government protests.

Governments in 30 countries deployed some form of manipulation to distort online information, up from 23 the previous year.

Paid commentators, trolls, bots, false news sites, and propaganda outlets were among the techniques used by leaders to inflate their popular support and essentially endorse themselves.

Most governments targeted public opinion within their own borders, but others sought to expand their interests abroad—exemplified by a Russian disinformation campaign to influence the American election.

Fake news and aggressive trolling of journalists both during and after the presidential election contributed to a score decline in the United States’ otherwise generally free environment.