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[ecrea] New report: Architects of Networked Disinformation

Tue Feb 20 08:32:08 GMT 2018





New Report Launched:
*Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines* *By Jonathan Corpus Ong (U of Massachusetts) and Jason Vincent Cabanes (U of Leeds)*

This 82-page report is produced by a British Council-funded ethnographic project that gained unprecedented access to the shadow industry of political trolling in the Philippines. Based on one year of interviews and observation of high-level strategists and fake news authors, we mapped out a highly organized and professionalized hierarchy—what we call the “architecture of networked disinformation”. While online trolling in the Philippines has been attributed to high-profile bloggers who support President Rodrigo Duterte and amplify his offensive and misogynist speech, the real "chief architects of disinformation" hide in plain sight. Holding respectable day jobs as top executives in ad and PR agencies, their political side hustles—undisclosed and unregulated—are an industry open secret.

The study sketches ethnographic portraits of disinformation architects to shed light on their work routines, social and financial motivations, as well as the mental acrobatics they make to justify morally sketchy work. It identifies the vulnerabilities in the creative industries and particularly the digital influencer industry that have not only enabled disinformation work but made it financially rewarding.

The Philippines, with its highly organized digital labor force represents a “stockpile of digital weapons” that have potentially grave consequences to democracies in the West. The report outlines preliminary policy recommendations and argues against a one-size-fits-all approach to disinformation interventions in global context.

Download here: http://newtontechfordev.com/newton-tech4dev-research-identifies-ad-pr-executives-chief-architects-fake-news-production-social-media-trolling/


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