3 ms·
While I too worry about political influence through abuse of social media, this article doesn't prove that this actually took place. What we see here is that t
by tr352 8y ago
While I too worry about political influence through abuse of social media, this article doesn't prove that this actually took place.
What we see here is that there are some very dubious twitter accounts with some interactions. But are these meaningful interactions? Did any of the content reach and influence the supposed target audience? Are the communities shown in the Gephi graph real communities? These communities and their interactions could just as well be fake. When I was working on exactly this, I noticed that fake communities (i.e. sets of fake accounts all retweeting each other) are quite common.
Just look at the specific accounts mentioned (Pascal66616113 and 1Happeningnow). They have only 2 and 51 followers, respectively, and right now it's 4 and 72.
I think it's very important to detect malicious political accounts on social media and be aware of their impact. This article mentions two examples of such accounts, but doesn't prove anything about impact. The conclusion that France is losing an information war here doesn't follow.
- mc32 8y agoYou make some good points. It's possible that the article, in itself, is a kind of propaganda to make it seem as if the actions of the French are influenced more by foreign agents than by their own volition and will. That said, TW could do more to make the example accounts less relevant in any case --to eliminate some of the accusation.
- dionian 8y agoIndeed. How do we not know this article itself is not an example of the phenomenon?
- x0rz 8y agoAuthor here. It is true you can't really tell. But now just use your common sense, look at the data. And yes, there are people leveraging these events to cause confusion. Make up your own opinons and feel free to disagree, nothing wrong here.