Abstract
This study explores how disinformation can dampen general users’ expressions of opinion online. In the context of a proven disinformation case in South Korea, this study analyzes externally validated click-logs of 1389 fake accounts and more than a million logs of 45,769 general users in a highly popular web portal. Findings show that the inflated visibility of anti-governmental opinions in the manipulated comment space was incongruent with the overall political tone that general users had spontaneously encountered from the broader media ecosystem beyond the manipulated space. Subsequently, this opinion “climate” incongruence decreased the likelihood of commenting in the manipulated space. The study concludes that false amplification (of the opinions that the manipulators promote) and false diminution (of general users’ political expressions) work in tandem to create a distorted opinion environment.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3252-3272 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | New Media and Society |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2024 |
Keywords
- Click fraud
- Spiral of Silence
- computational propaganda
- disinformation
- fake engagement
- false amplification
- influence operation
- opinion manipulation
- political astroturfing
- political bots
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Sociology and Political Science