Lisa Schirch Social Media Impacts on Social & Political Goods 19 36. Conducting Influence Campaigns and Psychological Operations. States have long used propaganda in their deliberate attempts to manipulate the public toward a desired political goal. The Russian term dezinformatsiya refers to the attempt to “destabilize” public trust in the media and other public institutions with the goal of fostering approval for authoritarian leadership. (Jack 2017) For example, the US military uses Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) or Military Information Support Operations (MISO) to “create emotions, attitudes, understanding, beliefs, and behavior favorable to the achievement of United States political and military objectives.” The US goal is to “win the hearts and minds” of local populations in the war on terror. Social media creates vast possibilities for non-state groups without the financial resources of the US military, like white nationalists and ISIS, to wage large-scale psychological operations that undermine social and political goods. Swaying Elections and Suppressing Voters. Political actors use social media to influence elections in a variety of ways. Political actors who do not have explicit help or coaching staff from the corporation itself also use social media platforms to sway voting. In the 2016 US Presidential election, Russia created fake Facebook accounts (known as “bots”) that posted divisive and fake news stories with the intent to sway voters toward candidate Trump and away from candidate Clinton. In July 2018, Facebook revealed that it had uncovered an alarming rate of attempts to interfere in the November 2018 midterm elections. (Fandos and Roose 2018) Russia also used social media to sway the UK Brexit vote, as well as in voting in European and other countries. Some social media companies, such as Facebook, provide staff assistants to any political campaign that buys ads. Facebook staff have provided advice to authoritarian leaders in the Philippines, India, Russia, and elsewhere who use Facebook to threaten journalists, spread disinformation about minorities, and undermine social and political goods. (Etter, Silver and Frier 2017) But Facebook asserts that they have “agnostic” political values. Facebook offered staff assistance to “embed” with both the Trump and Clinton campaigns during the 2016 US elections. Clinton declined the offer of a Facebook staff support, while Trump’s campaign relied heavily on the daily advice and guidance Facebook staff gave to their campaign. In addition to spreading mass propaganda and disinformation, political actors also use micro-targeted ads to suppress or influence specific users. (Tenove 2017) The Trump campaign also ran three types of micro-targeted ads on Facebook to suppress votes for Clinton. Ads targeted Bernie Sanders supporters, young women, and African Americans in key swing states with the goal of introducing doubt and convincing even a small minority of them not to vote for Clinton. (Beckett 2017) The Berlin-based think tank Tactical Tech reports on the psychological basis of developing psychometric profiling via social media platforms, and how political strategists use such profiling to sway elections. (Bashyakarla 2018) (Hankey 2018) The Cambridge Analytica corporation obtained psychometric