Social Media Manipulation Increasing Worldwide, New Report Warns

The spread of social media manipulation has reached alarming levels worldwide, according to a new report from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at Oxford University. Despite increasing efforts to combat computational propaganda, researchers have documented significant growth in organized manipulation campaigns across the globe.

The report reveals that the number of countries experiencing formally organized social media manipulation has jumped from 28 to 48, representing a dramatic increase. Samantha Bradshaw, co-author of the study, notes that political parties are increasingly responsible for this surge, particularly around election periods.

“We’re seeing more political parties learning from strategies deployed during Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential election,” Bradshaw explains. “More campaigns are using bots, junk news, and disinformation to polarize and manipulate voters.”

This growing trend poses a critical threat to public discourse and democratic processes. Government agencies and political actors worldwide are leveraging social media platforms to spread misleading content, exercise censorship, and undermine trust in established institutions including media, government, and scientific organizations.

Professor Phil Howard, lead researcher on OII’s Computational Propaganda project and co-author of the report, points to a concerning development: while many democratic governments have introduced legislation to combat fake news online, these initiatives are sometimes being co-opted for nefarious purposes.

“These ‘task forces’ to combat fake news are being used as a new tool to legitimize censorship in authoritarian regimes,” Howard warns. “At best, they’re creating counter-narratives and building tools for citizen awareness and fact-checking, but they’re not addressing the core problems.”

The researchers have also identified an evolution in how disinformation campaigns operate. As major social media platforms implement measures to identify and remove manipulative content, bad actors are adapting their strategies.

“There is evidence that disinformation campaigns are moving to chat applications and alternative platforms,” Bradshaw says. “This is becoming increasingly common in the Global South, where large public groups on chat applications are more popular.”

Despite increased scrutiny, automated bot accounts remain a prevalent tactic in manipulation campaigns. These accounts are deployed to spread partisan messages, strategically share content, and manipulate algorithms by using specific keywords to make certain content trend. In some cases, legitimate accounts and content are being mass-reported by these automated systems, causing temporary takedowns.

“We suspect new innovation will continue to emerge as platforms and governments take legal and regulatory steps to curb this type of activity,” Howard adds.

The financial scope of this problem is substantial. The OII researchers estimate that tens of millions of dollars are being spent on organized social media manipulation campaigns globally. While some of this money may fund legitimate advertising on social media platforms, there is clearly a growing industry dedicated to creating fake accounts, hiring online commentators, and developing political bots.

These findings come as tech companies face mounting pressure to address manipulation on their platforms. Major social media companies have implemented various measures to detect and remove fake accounts and misleading content, but the cat-and-mouse game continues as manipulation tactics evolve.

The implications of these trends extend beyond election integrity to fundamental questions about information quality in the digital age. As manipulation techniques become more sophisticated and widespread, distinguishing reliable information from computational propaganda becomes increasingly challenging for average citizens.

The full report, which contains detailed analysis of the global state of social media manipulation, is available on the Oxford Internet Institute’s Computational Propaganda project website.