Author(s)
Kate Starbird and Tom Wilson
Source
The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2020
Summary
Disinformation campaigns use misleading information to discredit a political adversary. Opponents of a humanitarian group operating in Syria use Twitter and YouTube to discredit the group.
Policy Relevance
Social media platforms should collaborate to address cross-platform misinformation campaigns.
Main Points
- The White Helmets are a nonsectarian humanitarian group operating in rebel areas of Syria; the group conducts rescue operations and documents attacks on civilians, and has become a target of the Syrian government and its allies.
- Disinformation is deliberately false or misleading information intended to create doubt about an adversary for a strategic political purpose; the work of paid agents is mingled with the activities of unwitting online participants.
- Mapping Twitter conversations about the While Helmets enabled researchers to identify a pro-White Helmets cluster and an anti-White Helmets cluster; a "cluster" is a network of accounts that retweet each other.
- On Twitter and YouTube, anti-White Helmets content dominates the conversation.
- Mainstream media outlets sometimes provide content supportive of the White Helmets.
- The anti-White Helmets make dedicated use of social media and alternative news sites.
- Anti-White Helmets make more effective and extensive use of linked YouTube videos.
- Russian state-sponsored media support the anti-White Helmets by supplying content for articles and videos and amplifying some social media voices.
- Disinformation is not simply provided by bots and trolls; some anti-White Helmets are fake personas operated by political entities, but some are sincere activists, journalists, or state media.
- Social media firms share data about disinformation on a voluntary and informal basis; development of more formal channels would aid detection of misinformation.
- Data sharing across platforms would raise consumer privacy issues; defining “disinformation” is the best first step to address concerns about cross-platform surveillance.