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: 1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:00PM
Very sad what happened in Zimbabwe last night. My thoughts and prayers are with @CDEMUGABE [twitter.com], Mrs. Mugabe and their loved ones. We are with you!