The social half are one of the most popular ways of communicating and promoting freedom of speech. However, nowadays they are often used for bad purposes. Many times used for dissemination of misinformation during the elections, for sexual assaults, for attacks, etc.
The Oxford Internet Institute did a research and found that from 2017 the organized malicious use of social media has more than doubled. Over 70 countries they propagate through social media in order to influence public opinion. Many times they even try to influence people around the world.
The research is called "The Global Disinformation Order». The researchers attempted to gather information from news organizations, non-governmental organizations and government agencies services from all over the world. The aim was to inventory global trends in social media manipulation. For example, the researchers found that in Vietnam, some users were invited to post messages in favor of the government on their personal profiles on Facebook. The Guatemalan government has violated some profiles in an attempt to stop the dissenting publications.
However, according to the findings, the country that is first in the world misinformation is China. The Chinese have used their own applications, such as WeChat and Weibo, to transmit false information and news. Lately, however, the Chinese government has been using global platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to influence public opinion.
Beyond China, there are other countries that promote misinformation to people around the world. Some of these countries are India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
According to the researchers, the most widely used social media platform for disseminating misinformation is Facebook. Many such campaigns came from 56 countries.
Social platforms are called upon to face an important challenge. Such actions must be mitigated. This is very difficult, especially when the carrier of the misinformation is a government.
The companies behind social networking platforms have hired experts to combat its spread online misinformation. However, governments are using increasingly sophisticated techniques, such as bots, bogus accounts, etc., to make it difficult to control.
Unfortunately, as technology evolves, new ways of spreading false news will be found. Researchers believe that Facebook will continue to be used for this purpose and that it is not doing enough to alleviate the phenomenon.
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