Get your shovels out since we will be digging our way into a rabbit hole. How does a passionate journalist expose disinformation on social media sites and illustrate the effects of this misleading information on American politics?
Marianna Spring, a BBC reporter, fought the digital battle against false information with more false information. The irony in the situation may have left Spring and BBC susceptible to charges despite the efforts for the greater good.
Springs created five fake American profiles and opened social media accounts for each of them, in the hopes to expose how disinformation spreads on social media sites. With computer-generated photos, she set up accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok. The accounts were passive, indicating that her personas didn’t have friends or publish public comments.
“We’re doing it with very good intentions because it’s important to understand what is going on,” Spring said. In the world of disinformation, “the U.S. is the key battleground.”
Spring worked with the Pew Research Center in the U.S. to launch five archetypes. It features: “Larry, the Faith and Flag conservative; Britney from the Populist Right; Gabriela, the less political Stressed Sideliner; Michael, the Democratic Mainstay; and Emma from the Progressive Left.”
These carefully crafted profiles with distinct traits are serving as bait to catch the algorithms of social media companies. So what fish did these baits catch?
After a week of leaving these accounts active, Britney — the Populist Right Voter — has received recommendations for pages on Instagram and Facebook that promote disinformation that Trump really won the 2020 election. Violent rhetoric was also found in reference to Trump’s opponents.
On the other hand, Michael’s account — the Democratic Mainstay, and Emma — the Progressive Left voter, have been pushed memes celebrating the investigation into Trump and sending prompts questioning why this didn’t happen earlier.
Experts aren’t necessarily applauding Spring’s findings as some believe that false identities go against the ethical standard of journalism. It’s unsettling to accept an argument about ethics when the nature of the experiment goes against the basic code of ethics. The finger pointer may have to divert that finger towards themselves before calling the companies out.