Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Disguised Propaganda from Digital to Social Media

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Book cover Second International Handbook of Internet Research

Abstract

Disguised propaganda and political deception in digital media have been studied since the early days of the World Wide Web. At the intersection of internet research and propaganda studies, this chapter explores disguised propaganda on websites and social media platforms. Based on a discussion of key concepts and terminology, this chapter outlines how new modes of deception and source obfuscation emerge in digital and social media environments, and how this development complicates existing conceptual and epistemological frameworks in propaganda studies. The chapter concludes by arguing that contemporary challenges of detecting and countering disguised propaganda can only be resolved, if social media companies are held accountable and provide the necessary support for user contestation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aro J (2016) The cyberspace war: propaganda and trolling as warfare tools. Eur View 15:121–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12290-016-0395-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Auerbach J, Castronovo R (2013) Introduction: thirteen propositions about propaganda. In: Auerbach J, Castronovo R (eds) The Oxford handbook of propaganda studies. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 1–16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Baym NK (2015) Social media and the struggle for society. Soc Media + Soc 1:205630511558047. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115580477

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker H (1949) The nature and consequences of black propaganda. Am Sociol Assoc 14:221–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benedictus L (2016) Invasion of the troll armies: from Russian Trump supporters to Turkish state stooges. Guard

    Google Scholar 

  • Bessi A, Ferrara E (2016) Social bots distort the 2016 us presidential election online discussion

    Google Scholar 

  • boyd d m, Ellison NB (2007) Social network sites: definition, history, and scholarship. J Comput Commun 13:210–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (2013) Communication power, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaykowski K (2017) Mark Zuckerberg: 2 Billion users means Facebook’s “Responsibility Is Expanding”. Forbes

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham SB (2002) The idea of propaganda: a Reconstruction. Praeger Publishers, Sanra Barbara

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlberg L (2001) Computer-mediated communication and the public sphere: a Critical Analysis. J Comput Commun 7(1)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daniels J (2008) Searching for Dr. King: Teens, race, and cloaked websites. In: Ennis E, Jones ZM, Mangiafico P, et al. (eds) Electronic techtonics: Thinking at the interface. Lulu Press, Durham NC

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels J (2009a) Cloaked websites: propaganda, cyber-racism and epistemology in the digital era. New Media Soc 11:659–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444809105345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daniels J (2009b) Cyber racism: white supremacy online and the new attack on civil rights. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels J (2014) From crisis pregnancy Centers to Teenbreaks.com: anti-abortion activism’s use of cloaked websites. In: Cyberactivism on the participatory web, pp 140–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Donath JS (1998) Identity and deception in the virtual community. In: Smith MA, Kollock P (eds) Communities in cyberspace. Routledge, London, pp 22–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellison NB, Boyd DM (2013) Sociality through social network sites. In: Dutton WH (ed) The Oxford handbook of internet studies. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 151–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellul J (1965) Propaganda: the formation of Men’s attitudes. Vintage Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Farkas J, Neumayer C (2017) “Stop fake haete profiles on Facebook”: challenges for crowdsourced activism on social media

    Google Scholar 

  • Farkas J, Schou J, Neumayer C (2017) Cloaked Facebook pages: exploring fake Islamist propaganda in social media. New Media Soc. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817707759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farkas J, Schou J, Neumayer C (2018) Platformed antagonism: racist discourses on fake Muslim Facebook pages. Crit Dis Stud 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2018.1450276.

  • Floridi L (1996) Brave.Net.World: the internet as a disinformation superhighway? Electron Libr 14:509–514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foot KA, Schneider SM (2002) Online action in campaign 2000: an exploratory analysis of the U.S. political web sphere. J Broadcast Electron Media 46:222–244. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4602_4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foxman AH, Wolf C (2013) Viral Hate. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Good KD (2013) From scrapbook to Facebook: a history of personal media assemblage and archives. New Media Soc 15:557–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812458432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hancock JT (2012) Digital deception: why, when and how people lie online. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Herman ES, Chomsky N (1988) Manufactoring consent: the political economy of the mass media. Pantheon Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Herman ES, Chomsky N (2008) Manufactoring consent: the political economy of the mass media. The Bodley Head, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Jowett GS, O’Donnell V (2012) Propaganda and Persuasion. SAGE, Los Angeles

    Google Scholar 

  • King G, Pan J, Robert ME (2017) How the Chinese government fabricates social media posts for strategic distraction, not engaged argument. GkingHarvard.edu. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055417000144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kollanyi B, Howard PN, Woolley SC (2016) Bots and automation over Twitter during the U.S. Election

    Google Scholar 

  • Leiser M (2016) AstroTurfing, “CyberTurfing” and other online persuasion campaigns. Eur J Law Technol 7:1–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Linebarger PMA (2010) Psychological warfare. Coachwhip Publications, Darke County

    Google Scholar 

  • Lippmann W (1946) Public opinion, vol 1. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick/London

    Google Scholar 

  • Mihailovic A (2015) Hijacking authorty: academic neo-aryanism and internet expertise. In: Simpson PA, Druxes H (eds) Digital media strategies of the far right in Europe and the United States. Lexington Books, Lanham, pp 83–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Milan S (2013) Social movements and their technologies: wiring social change. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • O’Reilly T (2005) What is Web 2.0: design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html. Accessed 6 Oct 2017

  • Phillips W (2012) The house that fox built: anonymous, spectacle, and cycles of amplification. Telev New Media 14:494–509. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476412452799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piper P (2001) Better read that again: web hoaxes and misinformation

    Google Scholar 

  • Poell T, van Dijck J (2015) Social media and activist communication. In: Atton C (ed) The Routledge companion to alternative and community media. Routledge, London, pp 527–537

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts ST (2016) Commercial content moderation: digital Laborers’ dirty work. In: Noble SU, Tynes B (eds) The intersectional internet: race, sex, class and culture online. Peter Lang, New York, pp 147–160

    Google Scholar 

  • SantaVicca EF (1994) The internet as reference and research tool: a model for educators. Ref Libr 19:225–236

    Google Scholar 

  • Schou J, Farkas J (2016) Algorithms, interfaces, and the circulation of information: interrogating the epistemological challenges of Facebook. KOME – An. Int J Pure Commun Inq 4:36–49. https://doi.org/10.17646/KOME.2016.13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shao C, Ciampaglia GL, Varol O, Jul SI (2017) The spread of fake news by social bots. In: ArXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07592v2. Accessed 5 Oct 2017

  • Soley LC, Nichols JS (1987) Clandestine radio broadcasting: a study of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary electronic communication. Praeger, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sproule MJ (1994) Channels of propaganda. EDINFO Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  • Tate M, Alexander J (1996) Teaching critical evaluation skills for world wide web resources. Comput Libr 16:49–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson K (2011) White Supremacist Site MartinLutherKing.org Marks 12th Anniversary. Huffingt. Post

    Google Scholar 

  • Tong Y, Lei S (2013) War of position and microblogging in China. J Contemp China 22:292–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2012.734084

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijck J (2013) The culture of connectivity: a critical history of social media. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wakabayashi D, Shane S (2017) Twitter, with accounts linked to Russia, to face congress over role in election. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/technology/twitter-russia-election.html

  • Winseck D (2008) Information operations ‘blowback’: communication, propaganda and surveillance in the global war on terrorism. Int Commun Gaz 70:419–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048508096141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang J, Carpenter D, Ko M (2013) Online astroturfing: a theoretical perspective. In: 19th am Conf Inf Syst AMCIS 2013, vol 4, pp 2559–2565

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek S (2009) Violence: six sideways reflections. Profile Books, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Johan Farkas

  2. Digital Design Department, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Christina Neumayer

Authors
  1. Johan Farkas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christina Neumayer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johan Farkas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Jeremy Hunsinger

  2. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lisbeth Klastrup

  3. Bldg. 209, 3rd Floor, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Autralia, Australia

    Matthew M. Allen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Farkas, J., Neumayer, C. (2018). Disguised Propaganda from Digital to Social Media. In: Hunsinger, J., Klastrup, L., Allen, M. (eds) Second International Handbook of Internet Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1202-4_33-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1202-4_33-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1202-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1202-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation