Author Archives: chrislinkfsu

While we know for a fact that efforts were made by the Russian Internet Research Agency to spread disinformation and spew divisive messages during the 2016 election cycle, we don’t really have clear indicator of how effective they were. To contextualize a little, the suspected reach of these internet trolls was around 126 million Americans.Continue reading “The Futility of Fake Posts”

In theory, social media should be a great unifier. It has the ability to reach people across the political aisle, people of all ages, and people off all different walks of life. However, in the case of the political sphere, this isn’t usually the case. Social media tends to be skewed towards younger people whoContinue reading “Social Media’s Skewed Elections Data”

For most social media platforms around the world, there is a Chinese copy. Instead of Facebook, there’s Renren. Instead of WhatsApp, there’s QQ. Instead of Tumblr, there’s Diandian. Instead of YouTube, there’s Youku. Our focus today will be the Twitter substitute Weibo. Over 50 accounts were recently shut down due to the publication of “politicallyContinue reading ““Politically Harmful”: Censorship on Weibo”

Despite heavy coverage, the United States Presidential election isn’t the only one impacted by social media. One more global example would be the 2019 presidential elections that occurred in Nigeria. The social media/communications app WhatsApp has been the host of much misinformation and “fake news” throughout the course of the election cycle. A rather humorousContinue reading “WhatsApp and Nigeria’s Presidential Election”

The 2016 election saw mass misinformation being posted all around various social media platforms. Since then, it’s shown no signs of stopping. If anything, misinformation is being spread in a more hidden way. A survey from NPR, PBS, and Marist Poll shows that 59% of Americans find that misinformation on social media is hard toContinue reading “Measuring Misinformation”

Despite their innocuous origin, memes have quickly become an influential force in society and in politics. While other sources of media are subject to scrutiny and fact-checking, memes seem to have escaped this critical lens. This lack of scrutiny has enabled the spread of misinformation and skewed statistics through the guise of humor. The usageContinue reading “Memes As A Political Tool”

Navigating the world of social media is hard by itself, but it’s even harder when you’re running a political campaign with thousands of eyes on you. Mistakes are pointed out with scrutiny and the court of public opinion is rarely on your side. Often your past is dug up and used against you, so it’sContinue reading “Social Media Mistakes In Political Campaigns”

An echo chamber is defined as “an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.” This type of environment is never more prevalent than when on social media. To examine echo chambers in real time,Continue reading “Social Media, Echo Chambers, and Polarization”

As I’ve hammered on about in previous blog posts, social media has become a crucial tool for political campaigns across the world. After all of this talk about it, you may be wondering how to start one up yourself. Fear not, this article by Heliz Mazouri and this amazing blog post have you covered. OneContinue reading “How To Campaign On Social Media”

On October 30th, 2019, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the social media giant “made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally.” This move echoes the up and coming social media video platform TikTok’s decision to do the same thing. The decision to ban political advertisements was praised by the community asContinue reading “Twitter and Facebook: Different Stances on Political Advertisements”