Social media as tools for political manipulation

Social media can be a dangerous weapon of political manipulation, thanks to its powerful reach and influence among users. There are many ways to reach people and explain concepts, ideas, or initiatives that promote a certain ideology, but this can be done in a subtle or insinuated way, so that the true intention is not clearly seen.

On November 2, 2010, when Facebook added a message that appeared on users' walls announcing which friends had already voted, in the context of the US midterm elections, it had an effect on users, since 60 million voters saw that new post on Facebook and the network calculated, by cross-referencing data between its users with the voter registry, that 340,000 people went to vote thanks to this announcement from the popular social network, which influenced all those people who were at home to vote, just as all their Facebook friends were doing.

From that moment on, popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter have been considered potential tools or weapons of political manipulation, as this is not the first time a social network has been used as a platform for political dissemination to provoke specific reactions. There are algorithms optimized to favor the spread of advertising.

Donald Trump's own team, as they indicate in this article, He acknowledges that "they rode to the White House on the back of social media, taking advantage of its massive capacity to reach extremely specific users with almost personalized messages.".

The Oxford Internet Institute published a report analyzing the influence of digital platforms on democratic processes worldwide and concluded that bots, Automated accounts can directly influence political processes of global importance.

The bots They have been used for political manipulation because they are effective at amplifying online propaganda. Any user can deploy an army of political bots on Twitter to create the illusion of widespread consensus, the Oxford team asserts. They conclude: "Computer propaganda is now one of the most powerful tools against democracy," and therefore digital platforms "need to be significantly redesigned for democracy to survive social media.".