How algorithms can help defend us against social network disinformation campaigns

IMAGE: Gordon Johnson — Pixabay (CC0)

I’ve long believed that the best way to counter most social media disinformation campaigns is by developing algorithms to detect them. Fake accounts or those designed to stoke viral responses on social networks, along with astroturfing — an attempt to simulate mass support for a slogan and pass it off as a genuine grassroots protest — follow certain…