Elections in 18 separate nations were influenced by online disinformation campaigns last year, suggests research.
Independent watchdog Freedom House looked at how online discourse was influenced by governments, bots and paid opinion formers.
In total, 30 governments were actively engaged in using social media to stifle dissent, said the report.
Educating users to spot fake news and making tech firms police their networks could combat the manipulation, it said.
Hacking must explain why voters are going off-script.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @04:53PM (1 child)
And how be is this worse than big media spreading lies and misinformation? I still remember the run-up to the 2nd Iraq War.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:06PM
And how be is this worse than big media spreading lies and misinformation? I still remember the run-up to the 2nd Iraq War.
They were factually reporting the statements made by the administration. It's the administration that was spreading the lies and propaganda.