Abstract: Deviant Mobs of the Internet: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

Social media platforms are largely considered as positive vehicle of change. However, more recently, they have been used to conduct a variety of malicious activities, including dissemination of propaganda, hoaxes, and disinformation to influence beliefs and behaviors. Availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools has made the coordination of such malicious activities even more convenient and effective. This talk will touch upon our various research efforts demonstrating the mechanics of disinformation campaigns, i.e., conducted primarily through blogs (and vlogs) but strategically linking to a variety of other social media platforms (viz., YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, WhatsApp, etc.). We examine the critical link among social media platforms and shed light on different media orchestration strategies. Using socio-computational models that leverage social network analysis and cyber forensic analysis, prominent information actors and leading coordinators of disinformation campaigns (akin to flash mobs) are identified. These models are grounded in the fundamental social science theory of collective action that allow us to measure the power of such coordinating units. Further, the talk will highlight tactics, techniques, and procedures used by deviant groups to amplify disinformation including the use of machine-driven communications (MADCOMS), e.g., botnets, commenter mobs, blog farms, coordinated clickbait, coordinated deep fakes, in order to effect algorithmic and psychological manipulations. Of the several case studies the research methodology has been applied to, the talk will illustrate disinformation campaigns pertaining to the Indo-Pacific region, Baltic region, and NATO’s military exercises in Europe. The research has been transitioned into publicly available software programs, viz., Blogtrackers and YouTubeTracker that will be showcased during the talk.