Social media researchers uncovered evidence that the US government is also spreading its own propaganda online.
When it comes to online propaganda, it's often China and Russia that first comes to mind given their reputation for disinformation campaigns. But recently, researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory and social media analytics firm Graphika have uncovered evidence that the US government is carrying out pro-western propaganda in other countries as well.
Gizmodo reported that in July and August, Twitter and Meta disclosed that they found two overlapping sets of "fraudulent accounts" that were spreading misleading content on their respective social media platforms. These accounts were shut down, but some data on them were shared with researchers from Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika, which then found that the disinformation campaigns appeared to be the work of the US government's propaganda network.
Researchers Find Evidence of 'Covert, Pro-US Influence Operation'
Stanford Internet Observatory member Shelby Grossman, who was also part of the research team who published the recent paper, explained that their study was one of the most intensive analyses made on "covert, pro-US influence operation." Researchers found that the propaganda campaigns that appeared to be carried out by the US government were very similar to the influence campaigns designed by America's own adversaries.
Grossman described the experience of witnessing "sock puppet accounts...pushing the opposite narrative" of what they were used to, which was "pro-Kremlin sock puppets." Furthermore, researchers observed that the narrative of a country killing civilians remained the same, except that the proper nouns had been switched around. Instead of pro-Kremlin influence alleging that America kills civilians in Syria, the narrative was that Russians kill civilians in Syria.
According to The Verge, the social media accounts found by Twitter and Meta and used in the research would carry out propaganda campaigns that would either criticize or support foreign governments to sow division. These accounts would also provide commentary on culture and politics, as well as share links to news sites that were supported by the US government and military.
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Social Media Accounts Spread 'Pro-US' Narratives
The online propaganda spread by these accounts that were taken down by Twitter and Meta spread "pro-US" narratives among online communities in Russia, China, and Iran. Actors used fake profiles to spread such propaganda for almost ten years.
Twitter reported that 146 fake accounts had shared 299,566 tweets from March 2012 to February 2022. Meanwhile, Meta reported that the dataset they shared with the Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika researchers included 39 Facebook profiles, 16 pages, two groups, and 26 Instagram accounts that were active from 2017 to July 2022.
Researchers were unable to pinpoint the true owners of the fraudulent accounts that spread pro-US government propaganda. However, Twitter reported that their activities' "presumptive countries of origin" were the US and Great Britain. Meta also claimed that the "country of origin" of such propaganda is the US.
Researchers came to the conclusion that the campaigns showed "consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies" while criticizing its adversaries Russia, China, and Iran. They also concluded that the US government-backed propaganda actors used the very same tactics that were already being used by other countries, such as the use of AI-generated profile photos, memes, and political cartoons, rendering it rather unspecial for an activity carried out by the US.
