disinformation campaign has a net effect of helping to cover up the war crimes Syrian and Russian forces are allegedly committing on the ground. Case Study 2: Political Manipulation – Elections in the Philippines Philippine President Duterte has proven adept at exploiting social media for political gain, leveraging Facebook to reinforce positive narratives about his campaign, and to defame and silence opponents and critics.96 The Philippine-based online news website Rappler has been the target of coordinated and sustained disinformation campaigns, after it exposed the systematic use of paid trolls,97 bots,98 networks of fake accounts and contracted influencers propagating pro-Duterte narratives (including mis- and disinformation) during the 2016 presidential election. Here’s how it works, according to Ong and Cabañes: “In order to achieve emotionally resonant messaging and authentic branding that would trigger grassroots support, chief disinformation architects need to collaborate with influencers much more fluent in popular vernaculars when planning creative executions of digital campaigns. Strategists and influencers then harness the support of both community-level fake account operators tasked to generate momentum and energy for a campaign and create “illusions of engagement”. Then, unpaid grassroots intermediaries and “real” supporters … amplify original campaign messages through shares and likes.”99 Weaponization via political manipulation Political manipulation is similar to information operations, but within the context of a single community or state. Political discourse is systematically manipulated by networked disinformation campaigns modeled after digital advertising approaches and operationalized through exploitative strategies and incentive structures. These practices have the power to set agendas, propagate ideas, debase political discourse and silent dissent, ultimately seeking to change the outcome of political events. These disinformation campaigns play out in three phases: 1) Design: Establishing objectives, branding, core narratives, etc. 2) Mobilization: Onboarding influencers, fake account operators, and grassroots intermediaries, and preparing media channels 3) Implementation: Disseminating and amplifying messages and implementing other tactics such as digital black ops, #trending and signal scrambling.100 96 Paladino, 16-17. 97 In internet slang, trolls refers to people who post inflammatory content online in order to cause argument or harass an individual or organization, either for their own amusement, or for another form of gain. Trolls are also associated with the presentation of extraneous information that sows or normalizes tangential conversations or narratives. 98 An internet bot, also known as a web robot, robot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. 99 Ong and Cabañes, 28. 100 Much like in the Information Operations case study 1, these political messaging campaigns also make use of #hashtag hijacking, astroturfing, and trading up the chain tactics. MERCY CORPS The Weaponization of Social Media: How social media can spark violence and what can be done about it 45