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Description
It is becoming increasingly important to understand Twitter as a public space that facilitates political discourse.
Unfortunately, this space is often under attack by organized groups that try to abuse the functionalities of the platform for purposes of spreading political propaganda. This kind of organized behavior goes against Twitter’s terms of service, but it is very hard to detect using conventional, automatized efforts and the network itself is doing too little to help suppress it—especially on a market as small as Slovenia. Combined with the lack of proper legislation it is becoming imperative that civil society helps with the oversight and watchdog efforts.
Project Twitter brigades will connect experts in the field of data mining (Danes je nov dan) and investigative journalism (Pod črto) in order to perform an analysis of the Slovenian Twitter network. The results of the analysis will be interpreted and presented in the form of a publicly accessible piece of investigative journalism, published online on the Pod črto website. The results of the analysis will also be forwarded to Twitter along with a takedown request for the abusive profiles.
The removal of the propaganda network from the political discourse on Twitter will help quell the inflamed political atmosphere, facilitate a more civil and fair debate, and offer existing and potential new users of the network a less discriminatory environment for public expression of opinion and thought.
All the policy markers are relevant in this project because part of the political discourse on Twitter is also hate speech, directed directly towards (or against) women, Roma and other vulnerable groups.
Summary of project results
It is becoming increasingly important to understand Twitter as a public space that facilitates political discourse. Unfortunately, this space is often under attack by organized groups that try to abuse the functionalities of the platform for purposes of spreading political propaganda. This kind of organized behavior goes against Twitter’s terms of service, but it is very hard to detect using conventional, automatized efforts and the network itself is doing too little to help suppress it—especially on a market as small as Slovenia. Combined with the lack of proper legislation it is becoming imperative that civil society helps with the oversight and watchdog efforts.
An informed public is crucial for a healthy democracy. We must not allow public online spaces, where the dominant political discourse is formed, to be left in the hands of organized groups attempting to misuse them. The solution to the identified problem will be twofold:
- Researching the patterns of behavior of suspicious user profiles and preparing a white paper;
- Preparing a research journalistic report."
The project successfully raised awareness about fake profiles on Twitter, especially among Twitter users, and successfully introduced the term ''astroturfing'' into the public debate, explaining the issues surrounding the use of such propaganda methods. The issue of using fake profiles for political propaganda in Slovenia also gained international attention, with mention in the European Parliament within the European Parliament''s group for monitoring the respect for democracy during a debate, where Slovenian media experts reported on the concerning state of media freedom in Slovenia.