Fake News and Election Interference--The Late 2010s, the Era of Information Manipulation."

Fake News and Election Interference--The Late 2010s, the Era of Information Manipulation."

In the late 2010s, social media was at the center of people's information gathering and opinion formation, and its influence extended deeply into the political realm. The 2016 U.S. presidential election, in particular, is considered a classic example of large-scale information operations by Russia. Rather than directly manipulating the outcome of the vote, they aimed to divide domestic public opinion and spread confusion. The Internet Research Agency (IRA) played a central role, running fake accounts and fictitious organizations that exploited sensitive topics such as immigration, race, and gun control to provoke public sentiment. Facebook ads were low-cost, wide-reaching, and micro-targeted with different misinformation for different audiences, such as urging black voters not to vote and urging white conservatives to be anti-immigrant. Twitter bots automatically and repeatedly retweeted the information, creating the illusion of a large public opinion. Studies show that milli
ons of false information was displayed hundreds of millions of times, instilling distrust in some voters. In the background were U.S.-Russian tensions over Ukraine and NATO, and Russia's attempts to exert influence not only in the military but also in the information space; since 2017, Congressional hearings have revealed these activities, and it is widely recognized that social networking sites are a new battleground that threatens the foundations of democracy. False news and electoral interference have confronted the fragility of the free speech arena and have become emblematic of the "invisible cold war" of the 21st century.