2020 GLOBAL INVENTORY OF ORGANIZED SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION Strategies, Tools, and Techniques Cyber troops make use of a variety of strategies, tools, and techniques to spread computational propaganda. Although propaganda is not new, the affordability of social networking technologies changes the scale, scope, and precision of how disinformation is transmitted. These digital tools are constantly changing and adapting alongside innovations in technology. We have identified common tools and tactics used by cyber troops to comparatively assess the threat landscape. Account Types Cyber troops use both real and fake accounts to spread computational propaganda. These accounts can also be "human curated" or make use of automation. Automated accounts (sometimes referred to as political bots) are often used to amplify certain narratives while drowning out others. We found evidence of automated accounts being used in fiftyseven countries. An example of a highly automated cyber troop campaign includes bots set up by various public institutions in Honduras, including the National Television Station. These accounts were all traced to a single IP address range in Honduras, and pushed content designed to undermine the public conversation (Cryst & Garcia Camargo, 2020). Increasingly more common is the use of human-curated accounts, which might use low levels of automation but also engage in conversations by posting comments or tweets, or by private messaging individuals via social media platforms. Human-operated accounts have been found in seventynine countries. It is important to note that human-curated accounts can be both real and fake. For example, in the United States teenagers were enlisted by a pro-Trump youth group, Turning Point Action, to spread pro-Trump narratives, as well as disinformation about topics such as mail-in ballots or the impact of the coronavirus (Stanley-Becker, 2020). 57 79 14 countries used automated accounts countries used human-curated accounts countries used hacked, stolen or impersonation accounts Another type of real-human account includes hacked, stolen, or impersonation accounts (including groups, pages, or channels), which are then co-opted to spread computational propaganda. However, these types of accounts make up a small portion of account types involved in computational propaganda. We have found only fourteen instances of hacked, stolen, or impersonated accounts. One example includes a fake Instagram profile that was created to impersonate Ali Karimli, the leader of the Popular Front Party in Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan Internet Watch, 2019). [ 11 ]