Australian research institute releases report saying
network navy organized dissemination of "new crown virus made in China" lies
The newspaper Canberra June 5th reporter Li Xuehua reported: A research report released recently by the Responsible Technology Center of the Australian Research Institute said that false information about the new coronavirus, especially the "China created a virus for the development of biological weapons" conspiracy theory spread on the Internet During the process, the “support Trump” and “Anonymous Q” social media groups played a coordinating role.
The research commissioned by experts from the Queensland University of Technology showed that the conspiracy theory spread on Twitter is like a coordinated cyber naval operation. They analyzed 2.6 million tweets related to the new corona virus on Twitter in late March, and 25.5 million reposts of these tweets in a 10-day period, and found that 5,752 Twitter accounts responded to the new crown in a consistent manner. Virus-related information was forwarded 6,559 times, and a conspiracy theory about "New Crown Virus is a biological weapon made in China" was spread in a coordinated manner. In 10 days, there were 882 original tweets related to the biological weapons conspiracy theory. These tweets were retweeted 18498 times, liked 3783 times, and read about 5 million times on Twitter. The study also confirmed a network of false information, each of which has 4,125 links between 2,903 accounts. In this network, researchers have found 28 to 30 account groups, all of which are identified as "support Trump", the Republican Party, or related to the "Anonymous Q" organization that supports Trump.
The report said, "Whether the cyber navy participants carefully plan and promote these conspiracy theories on biological weapons or use them by outsiders, the public opinion effect to be achieved is the same, that is, the topics or topics promoted by the rumors are more changed. Accepted by a wide range of marginal groups, thereby amplifying the authenticity of rumors." The report pointed out that the errors and false information contained in the original tweets are no longer only promoted by robot programs and other related accounts, but are forwarded by real users in a wider range. When the media or social media are also involved in the conspiracy theory, even if there are facts to refute, false information can easily cause widespread public attention. Social media sites often talk about conspiracy theories without correction or fact check, and as a result, a large number of new audiences are exposed to false information that they would not otherwise have encountered. Therefore, small media may become an important way for conspiracy theories to enter mainstream public opinion.