Can we protect our elections from social media manipulators?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An estimated 2.6 billion people use social media, but in the online world not everything is what it seems. Fake accounts and automatic programmes can be used to spread disinformation and influence political narratives. We hear from experts across the world about how elections have been fought, and won, with the help of this electronic – and sometimes not so electronic – army. In a world where social media expansion shows no signs of slowing – how do we protect our elections from social media manipulators?
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producers: Lizzy McNeill & Helen Grady
Experts: Samantha Bradshaw Natashya Gutierrez Idayat Hassan Ben Nimmo
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome to the inquiry with me Tanya Beckett. |
| 0:04.0 | Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. Once upon a time, well in 2017 to be precise, there was a darling of right-wing social media, Jenna Abrams. |
| 0:25.0 | Her Twitter page showed an attractive woman in her early 30s. |
| 0:29.0 | She liked to post relatable tweets about cult figures like the |
| 0:33.2 | Kardashians, how awesome her new haircuts were, |
| 0:36.7 | her issues with bad punctuation, and racist views. |
| 0:41.9 | With 70,000 followers she was a strong pro-Trump |
| 0:47.2 | voice on social media during the 2016 election campaign. Mainstream news outlets even quoted her tweets, including the BBC. |
| 0:58.0 | She was the epitome of an all-American young woman, |
| 1:02.0 | except, as it turned out she wasn't because Jenna Abrams |
| 1:07.0 | wasn't American or a Republican in fact she didn't even exist. She'd been dreamt up by a team of unknown Russians |
| 1:16.8 | operating from St. Petersburg. Who can you trust in the world behind the screen? |
| 1:24.5 | This week we ask, can we protect our elections from social media manipulators? Part 1, a beginner's guide to bots and trolls. |
| 1:37.0 | Around the world were increasingly seeing more actors, whether they be domestic political |
| 1:50.9 | parties or foreign states using social media to influence public |
| 1:56.9 | opinions and beliefs. |
| 2:00.3 | Samantha Bradshaw is a researcher at Oxford University. |
| 2:05.0 | She analyzes social media activity in the run-up to elections, |
| 2:10.0 | highlighting anything that doesn't look genuine, |
| 2:12.0 | and is here to guide us through the basics of... highlighting anything that doesn't look genuine, |
| 2:12.6 | and is here to guide us through the basics of social media manipulation. |
| 2:17.0 | Item 1, bots. |
... |
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