Security News > 2022 > March > Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia are top sources of online misinformation

Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the top three proliferators of state-linked Twitter misinformation campaigns, according to a report released Wednesday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The think tank's International Cyber Policy Centre report and corresponding website examined datasets in Twitter's Information Operations Archive to understand state willingness, capability and intent to drive disinformation campaigns.

The datasets ASPI analysed reached into terabytes, and the think tank's researchers therefore restricted their work to tweets published within 90 days of an account's previous tweet.

Tweets from Iran, which bans Twitter domestically, focused on managing international perceptions and stirring up adversary nations.

"Twitter has been perhaps the most forward leaning entity in the social media industry in terms of its public engagement on information operations," praised the study authors.

While a comprehensive cross-platform approach to cracking down on misinformation on the internet is prudent, focusing on Twitter - as opposed to, say, more video-focused sites - might be an understandable strategy as research has shown it is easier to spread misinformation effectively via text than video.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/03/31/russia_iran_and_saudi_arabia/