Department of Political Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 6;13(1):333. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-26921-5.
For Iranians and the Iranian diaspora, the Farsi Twittersphere provides an important alternative to state media and an outlet for political discourse. But this understudied online space has become an opinion manipulation battleground, with diverse actors using inauthentic accounts to advance their goals and shape online narratives. Examining trending discussions crossing social cleavages in Iran, we explore how the dynamics of opinion manipulation differ across diverse issue areas. Our analysis suggests that opinion manipulation by inauthentic accounts is more prevalent in divisive political discussions than non-divisive or apolitical discussions. We show how Twitter's network structures help to reinforce the content propagated by clusters of inauthentic accounts in divisive political discussions. Analyzing both the content and structure of online discussions in the Iranian Twittersphere, this work contributes to a growing body of literature exploring the dynamics of online opinion manipulation, while improving our understanding of how information is controlled in the digital age.
对于伊朗人和伊朗侨民来说，波斯语推特空间为他们提供了一个重要的选择，使他们可以避开官方媒体，并为政治话语提供了一个出口。但这个研究不足的在线空间已经成为一个舆论操纵的战场，各种行为者利用虚假账户来推进自己的目标并塑造在线叙事。通过研究跨越伊朗社会分裂的热门讨论，我们探讨了不同问题领域的舆论操纵动态有何不同。我们的分析表明，在有分歧的政治讨论中，虚假账户的舆论操纵比非分歧或非政治讨论更为普遍。我们展示了推特的网络结构如何帮助加强虚假账户集群在有分歧的政治讨论中传播的内容。通过分析伊朗推特空间中既有内容又有结构的在线讨论，这项工作有助于丰富探索在线舆论操纵动态的文献，同时提高我们对数字时代信息如何被控制的理解。
