Trolls, bots and everyone else: the analysis of multilingual social media manipulation campaigns on Twitter during 2019 elections in Ukraine
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Using a mixed-methods approach, we investigate cross-language
activities of both automated and nonautomated manipulation
agents on Twitter in the run-up to the 2019 presidential elections
in Ukraine. We find that in the Russian-language tweets, social
media manipulation tactics were employed to a lesser extent
compared to the Ukrainian-language tweets, highlighting a
strategic use of social media manipulation that varied according
to the linguistic context of the targeted audience. Our findings
underscore the critical need for cross-language analysis in
understanding social media manipulation, especially in
multilingual contexts, revealing how manipulation campaigns’
intensity and content can vary across languages, differentially
affecting audiences.
activities of both automated and nonautomated manipulation
agents on Twitter in the run-up to the 2019 presidential elections
in Ukraine. We find that in the Russian-language tweets, social
media manipulation tactics were employed to a lesser extent
compared to the Ukrainian-language tweets, highlighting a
strategic use of social media manipulation that varied according
to the linguistic context of the targeted audience. Our findings
underscore the critical need for cross-language analysis in
understanding social media manipulation, especially in
multilingual contexts, revealing how manipulation campaigns’
intensity and content can vary across languages, differentially
affecting audiences.
Date Issued
2024-10-18
Publication Type
Article
Subjects
Computational propaganda
•
Ukraine
•
Russia
•
elections
•
Twitter
•
mixed methods
Language(s)
en
Additional Credits
Journal
East European Politics
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN
2159-9173
2159-9165
Access(Rights)
open.access