NATO-affiliated researchers said they were easily able to buy tens of thousands of likes, comments and views on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Social media companies are failing to stop manipulated activity, according to a report Friday by NATO-affiliated researchers who said they were easily able to buy tens of thousands of likes, comments and views on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Online manipulation emerged as a major issue for tech companies after the 2016 U.S. election, when Russian influence efforts came to light. The researchers found that most fake social media activity is bought for commercial reasons, not political ones. It can include Instagram influencers trying to pump up their profiles to make more money from their brand contracts.
To avoid influencing real conversations, they bought clicks only for posts that were at least six months old and carried neutral and non-political messages, such as “Hello!” and “Thank you!” on New Year’s greetings from European Union commissioners.Four weeks later, 80% of the fake activity remained online, the researchers found as they sought to gauge whether the sites were independently detecting misuse.
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