Information Warfare: Memes and their Attack on the Most Valued Critical Infrastructure—the Democratic Institution Itself

Marc Dupuis, Andrew Williams

Social media has become a potent vector for the spread of disinformation. Content initially posted by bots, trolls, or malicious actors is often picked up and magnified by ordinary users, greatly extending its influence and reach. In order to combat disinformation online, it is important to understand how users interact with and spread this type of content, unwittingly or not. We studied patterns in the sharing of propaganda and disinformation on social media through political image-based memes. Initially, we began with a selection of 12 memes. In our first survey, we narrowed this down from 12 memes to six based on the responses received with respect to the message it was trying to convey and representation of varying viewpoints along the ideological spectrum. Ultimately, we chose a selection of six memes. Four of them involved climate-change with two considered left-leaning and the other two right-leaning, and the remaining two were focused on particular politicians and also split along ideological lines. Next, we conducted a second survey in order to better understand the behavior of ordinary users as they interact with propaganda and disinformation on social media. Particular attention was paid to differences based on political affiliation and psychological factors, including personality and trait affect. Negative types of affect appear to dominate the level of engagement Republicans and Independents have with memes, while positive types of affect and extraversion do the same for Democrats.

Full Text