Russian State supported accounts are operational TIC Toc A new report finds that they are posting more and reaching many more people ahead of the US election.
The report said this exposure could affect voters’ willingness to “mobilize or take action”, which could facilitate the targeting of false or hyperpartisan content.
“(The accounts) were focusing on things that may be quite powerful or quite salient issues for young voters,” report author Valerie Wirtschafter told Global News.
These include United States policies on Israel, immigration concerns (the report found that Spanish posts had high participation), and Joe Biden And Donald Trump,
Wirtschafter investigated 70 Russian state-linked accounts. They determined that they will be posting almost twice as often per day in 2024 compared to 2023 so far, increasing from two or three times to four or five times per day.
Many more people are seeing the post. Wirtschafter found that engagement grew from three million per day in 2022 to 13 million per day in 2024. A small part of the post focuses on wage issues.
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The report from the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, highlights the contradiction in how Russian state-linked posts portrayed the two presidential candidates. Posts about Biden focused on his age and questioned whether he is suitable for another term in office, while posts about Trump focused on his humor, stance on NATO, and limited-edition shoe line. seen.
“It was very much one-dimensional in terms of the type of narrative,” Wirtschafter said, telling Global News that TikTok accounts also raised concerns about Biden’s handling of classified documents, while none of Trump’s posts included them. Handling was not mentioned.
“There’s a real incentive or real interest in Russia to try and pursue these issues,” he said, because of the potential “momentum advantage” Russia would gain if Donald Trump were elected because of his comparisons to Biden on Russia. I have a friendly attitude.
The report warns that TikTok may not change voter perceptions, although they may “influence voters’ willingness to mobilize or take action.”
It’s “not necessarily about persuasion but about mobilization,” Wirtschafter said, meaning the videos could convince people not to vote for Biden if they already have doubts about him.
US lawmakers recently voted to force ByteDanceByteDance will share users’ personal information with the Chinese government, prompting the company that owns TikTok to either sell the video app or operate it in the US. ByteDance says it will fight this decision.
Wirtschafter said an American company owning the platform would not solve the problem of Russian videos because misinformation and disinformation would still be posted.
“Engaging with, and providing timely rebuttal to, these narratives, where possible and appropriate, remains important,” they wrote in the report.
He said it is important to flag sources as being affiliated with the Russian state and other users and platforms to flag and correct lies.
He also suggested that Russian activity on TikTok will only increase.
“My sense is that this is not yet a fully realized niche for Russian state-affiliated accounts.”
©2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.