EXAMINING STRATEGIC INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN COORDINATION
EXAMINING STRATEGIC INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN COORDINATION

Summary/Abstract: Social media platforms are widely used for sharing information. Although social media use is generally benign, such platforms can also be used for a variety of malicious activities, including the dissemination of propaganda, hoaxes, and fake news to influence the public. The availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools has made such malicious activity much more convenient and effective. In this paper we study how blogs act as virtual spaces where malicious narratives are framed and then further disseminated through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. To discover how such disinformation campaigns work, it is necessary to examine the link between blogs and social media platforms and the role they play in media orchestration strategies, more specifically cross-media and mix-media strategies. We have carried out an in-depth examination of information networks, using social network analysis and cyber forensics, to identify prominent information actors and the leading coordinators of several disinformation campaigns. The research methodology we have developed reveals a massive disinformation campaign pertaining to the Baltic region, conducted primarily through blogs but strategically linking to a variety of other social media platforms, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and VKontakte.

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