Australia’s spy agency ASIO says social media itself is not the threat, but the way it is designed leaves it open to abuse by foreign powers.
Foreign interference and the spread of disinformation are made easier by social media in the way it uses secret algorithms to put forward content, allows anonymity and provides limited moderation, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warns.The spy agency said social media itself was not the threat, but the way that it was designed left it open to abuse by foreign powers.
The committee is expected to call the likes of Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, WeChat and others to appear and answer questions about foreign interference on their platforms.ASIO said for-profit social media companies used algorithms to drive greater engagement, therefore growing advertising revenue. “This allows for fake imposter, impersonator and multiple accounts to be created and operated by one user. This inauthentic use can then be used to conduct online foreign interference activities in an unmoderated way.”last month warned there were still 16,000 Australians on LinkedIn declaring they had security clearance, including 1000 in the intelligence community.
“Such campaigns are intended to induce changes in the decision-making, beliefs and opinions of the target audience. They occur in complex environments where actors overlap, borders are blurred and motives are mixed.”
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