Can you outsmart a troll (by thinking like one)? - Claire Wardle
Your town is holding a mayoral election
and the stakes have never been higher:
the outcome will decide the fate
of a local movement
to rely on 100% renewable energy.
One mayoral nominee, Joanna B. Greene,
is a champion of this movement,
while the other, Stannis Quo,
staunchly opposes it.
He’s announced he’ll use whatever tactics
are necessary to win the election.
As the municipal cybersecurity expert,
you’re on high alert.
Election day is near
and you suspect that Quo
will begin pushing false information
to swing the election in his favor.
Your job is to inoculate the townspeople
against false information
before the election.
One of the most effective ways
to tackle disinformation
is to encourage people to think
about the strategies
used by those who create and spread it.
This might seem counter-intuitive—
and potentially dangerous—
but as long as you don’t create
a “how-to manual,”
active inoculation is an effective option.
A study conducted in 2019
used an online game to train people
to think like a disinformation producer.
When the participants
were next shown the disinformation,
their perception of its reliability
dropped significantly.
But before you can teach
your own townspeople,
you need to figure it out for yourself.
What strategies would you employ
if you were Stannis Quo?
In order to launch a successful
disinformation campaign,
you must use evocative, and convincing
content that will spread quickly
and create confusion.
It’ll also help to take advantage
of confirmation bias.
People are intuitively more inclined
to believe information
that supports a worldview
they already have.
Many young voters in your town
are in favor
of transitioning to renewable energy
and sympathize with Greene.
Rather than trying to change their minds,
Quo will likely focus
on suppressing the youth vote.
If you were him, how would you start?
You might create fake user accounts
to spread disinformation
on popular social media platforms.
You could even make one that impersonates
a trusted figure.
From these accounts, you can deliver
highly shareable, engaging visual content,
like memes relating
to the imminent election.
That’s how you would like to go
about spreading disinformation,
but what kind of disinformation
would be effective
in manipulating young Greene supporters?
First, you could direct people to vote
via text, a webpage, or an app,
none of which are viable voting platforms
in your town.
The claim isn’t too far-fetched.
An encrypted digital platform could
actually seem safer to young people
than the traditional ballot system.
Perhaps you could also tell
them that the voting day
is one day after it actually is.
You could then pair this approach
with a more emotion-driven one.
How about vilifying Greene
and appealing to the young voters’ values?
You want to share information that taps
into people’s sense of civic duty
and makes them feel that the election
depends on their sharing it
as widely as possible.
Your fake accounts could circulate
false accusations that Greene takes money
from local, somehow corrupt
renewable energy facilities;
treats her staff poorly;
or abuses stray kittens for fun.
These inflammatory claims
could lead people to question
Greene’s integrity as a leader and even
initiate further conspiracy theories.
After you’ve introduced
these disinformation campaigns,
your fake users should keep repeating
them so they stick in people’s minds.
Finally, media coverage
would further spread your claims
and give them perceived legitimacy.
You could message a few local journalists
asking whether these rumors are true
and express your concerns.
By the time an article comes out
debunking the rumors,
people’s experiences of the truth
will have become so warped
that convincing them otherwise
will be difficult.
A disinformation campaign like this
would pit citizens against one another
and exploit their values and fears.
You can't personally protect
each individual from disinformation,
but you can equip them with the insights
you have—
and encourage them to pass
these tools further along.
After all, community organizing
is what elections often call for.
