Washington, Nov 14 (AFP) More governments are followingthe lead of Russia and China by manipulating social media andsuppressing dissent online in a grave threat to democracy, ahuman rights watchdog said today.
A study of internet freedom in 65 countries found 30governments are deploying some form of manipulation to distortonline information, up from 23 the previous year.
These efforts included paid commentators, trolls, "bots"-- the name given to automated accounts -- false news sitesand propaganda outlets, according to the 2017 "Freedom on theNet" report by human rights group Freedom House.
The report said online manipulation and disinformationtactics played an important role in elections in at least 18countries over the past year, including the United States.
"The use of paid commentators and political bots tospread government propaganda was pioneered by China and Russiabut has now gone global," said Michael Abramowitz, presidentof Freedom House.
"The effects of these rapidly spreading techniques ondemocracy and civic activism are potentially devastating."Sanja Kelly, director of the Freedom on the Net project,explained such manipulation is often hard to detect, and "moredifficult to combat than other types of censorship, such aswebsite blocking."The organisation said 2017 marked a seventh consecutiveyear of overall decline in internet freedom, as a result ofthese and other efforts to filter and censor informationonline.
Freedom House said China was the world's worst abuser ofinternet freedom for a third straight year, due to stepped-uponline censorship, a new law cracking down on anonymity onlineand the imprisonment of dissidents using the web.
Other countries also increased their efforts to censorand manipulate information, the report said.
This included a "keyboard army" of people employed andpaid USD 10 a day by the Philippine government to amplify theimpression of widespread support of a brutal drugs crackdown,and Turkey's use of an estimated 6,000 people to countergovernment opponents on social media.
Meanwhile, as Russia sought to spread disinformation toinfluence elections in the US and Europe, the Kremlin alsotightened its internal controls, the report said.
Bloggers who attract more than 3,000 daily visitors mustregister their personal details with the Russian governmentand abide by the law regulating mass media -- while searchengines and news aggregators are banned from including storiesfrom unregistered outlets.
The study also found governments in at least 14 countriesrestricted internet freedom in a bid to address contentmanipulation. In one such example, Ukraine blocked Russia-based services, including the country's most widely usedsocial network and search engine, in an effort to crack downon pro-Russian propaganda.
"When trying to combat online manipulation from abroad,it is important for countries not to overreach," Kelly said.
"The solution to manipulation and disinformation lies notin censoring websites but in teaching citizens how to detectfake news and commentary. Democracies should ensure that thesource of political advertising online is at least astransparent online as it is offline." (AFP)UZM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.