The use of social media to subvert elections and undermine trust in democratic institutions is a widespread phenomenon, extending far beyond the actions of a few bad actors. Coordinated manipulation campaigns are taking place domestically in every type of political regime, and foreign operations have targeted several Western and emerging democracies during recent elections. In this year’s report, we examine cyber troop activity in 48 countries: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. A strong democracy requires high-quality news from an independent media, a pluralistic climate of opinion, and the ability to negotiate public consensus. But powerful political actors are increasingly leveraging social media to manufacture consensus, manipulate public opinion, and subvert democratic processes. Building on the global inventory we developed in 2017, we can now look back on a year’s worth of trends in the strategies, organization, and resourcing of social media manipulation around the world. Several notable trends have emerged from these data. 1. Political Parties and Disinformation During Elections With each passing election, there is a growing body of evidence that national leaders, political parties, and individual political candidates are using social media platforms to spread disinformation. Although closely related to some of the dirty tricks and negative campaigning we might expect in close races (and which have always played a part in political campaigning), what makes this phenomenon unique is the deliberate use of computational propaganda to manipulate voters and shape the outcome of elections. In 30 of the 48 countries we examined, we found evidence of political parties using computational propaganda during elections or referenda. In emerging and Western democracies, sophisticated data analytics and political bots are being used to poison the information environment, promote skepticism and distrust, polarize voting constituencies, and undermine the integrity of democratic processes. In more authoritarian regimes, governing parties apply the same strategies as part of their broader efforts to subvert elections. In these cases, social media manipulation, as well as media control, ballot stuffing and police intimidation, all shape the power of ruling elites. 5