Citation
Arif, Ahmer; Stewart, Leo Graiden; Starbird, Kate. Acting the Part: Examining Information Operations Within# Blacklivesmatter Discourse
. ACM Journals Vol 2, no. CSCW (2018): 1-27. DOI: 10.1145/3274289.
Findings
The piece examined how Russian IRA accounts inserted themselves into the discourse surrounding the BlackLivesMatter movement and police shootings in 2016. The authors found that IRA accounts positioned themselves along the fault line created in the wake of police shootings and BLM protests, creating personas that exploited both pro- and anti-BLM sentiment. Network analysis clearly showed that the accounts were embedded in both clusters, that is the content was retweeted on both sides of the conversation to appeal to these two different audiences. These troll accounts took steps to make themselves look authentic, including interacting with each other and legitimate Twitter users to create trust to allow their narrative to infiltrate further into legitimate discussions. The authors find that there were systematic patterns to the forged profiles. The establishment of 'the proud African American' as a political identity, on the one hand, and the articulation of 'the proud White Conservative', on the other as well as invoking stereotypical thinking and using organizational accounts that presented themselves as alternative media sources. The accounts used identity, linguistic and cultural markers that resonated with the two communities. For example, accounts in the right-leaning cluster used photographs to present themselves as white men and women living in Texas or other southern states who were interested in firearms. They also used antagonistic narratives targeting the other cluster to connect to existing discontent and then amplify it. Finally, these accounts criticized the traditional media and in doing so aimed to undermine trust in the media. The authors argue that the way in which Russian troll accounts have infiltrated the two distinct communities suggests that they were enacting harsh caricatures of political partisans that may have pulled likeminded accounts closer and push accounts from the other side even further away. This suggest support for the hypothesis that Russia's use of troll accounts has played a role in promoting division.
Tags
Method: Qualitative Method: Quantitative Operation: State Initiation of info ops threat/attack Attack: Political/Legal Institutions of the state that is threatened/attacked Attack: General population of the state that is threatened/attacked Geoscope: Single country UN Region: Northern America DOD Region: NORTHCOM Country: USA Type: Article Year: 2018
Research Background
- Research questions
- Were Russian information operations active in the Black Lives Matters discourse? Who did these accounts attempt to mimic? What did these accounts do to produce and maintain their personas? What were these personas used to model and project in the discourse? To what extent did these 'performances' seem to adhere to a common script or set of constraints and where did they deviate from each other?
- Hypotheses
- The use of inauthentic accounts by Russia on Twitter is linked with the creation of divisive discourse on social media. (inferred)
Variables or Concepts
- Independent variables & concepts
- Use of inauthentic accounts that tweeted on Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and All Lives Matter (inferred)
- Dependent variables & concepts
- Promoting group division on Twitter (inferred)
Methodologies
- Qualitative method description
- Qualitative analysis of Lives Matter discourse by 29 IRA-linked twitter accounts
- Quantitative method description
- Network graph construction of twitter accounts, retweets, and community clusters
Time Frame
- Start: 2015
- End: 2016