2020 GLOBAL INVENTORY OF ORGANIZED SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION Conclusion We find that industrialized disinformation has become more professionalized, and produced on a large scale by major governments, political parties, and public relations firms. professionalized, industrialized misinformation production by mainstream communications and public relations firms. While social media can enhance the scale, scope, and precision of disinformation (Bradshaw & Howard, 2018), many of the issues at the heart of computational propaganda — polarization, distrust and the decline of democracy — have pre-dated social media and even the Internet itself. The co-option of social media technologies should cause concern for democracies around the world—but so should many of the long-standing challenges facing democratic societies. Both the Covid-19 pandemic and the US election forced many social media firms to better flag misinformation, close fake accounts, and raise standards for both information quality and civility in public conversation. Not everyone agrees that these initiatives are sufficient. It is also not clear whether these more aggressive responses by social media firms will be applied to other issue areas or countries. Computational propaganda has become a mainstay in public life. These techniques will also continue to evolve as new technologies — including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, or the Internet of Things — are poised to fundamentally reshape society and politics. But computational propaganda does not exist or spread independently. It is the result of poor technology design choices, lax public policy oversight, inaction by the leadership of social media platforms, investments by authoritarian governments, political parties, and mainstream communications firms. Computational propaganda is also a driver of further democratic ills, including political polarization and diminished public trust in democratic institutions. Social media platforms can be an important part of democratic institutions, which can be strengthened by high-quality information. A strong democracy requires access to this information, where citizens are able to come together to debate, discuss, deliberate, empathize, make concessions and work towards consensus. There is plenty of evidence that social This report has highlighted the ways in which government media platforms can be used for these things. But in this annual agencies and political parties have used social media to inventory, we find significant evidence that in more countries spread political propaganda, pollute the digital information than ever, social media platforms serve up disinformation at ecosystem, and suppress freedoms of speech and press. In the behest of major governments, political parties and public our annual inventory for 2020, we also find a clear trajectory in relations firms. [ 21 ]