Troll Farms and Voter Disinformation

18 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2021 Last revised: 11 Oct 2021

See all articles by Philipp Denter

Philipp Denter

Charles III University of Madrid

Boris Ginzburg

Charles III University of Madrid

Date Written: September 3, 2021

Abstract

Political agents often attempt to influence elections through "troll farms" that flood social media platforms with messages from fake accounts that emulate genuine information. We study the ability of troll farms to manipulate elections. We show that such disinformation tactics is more effective when voters are otherwise well-informed. Thus, for example, societies with high-quality media are more vulnerable to electoral manipulation.

Keywords: Fake News, Disinformation, Troll Farms, Elections, Social Media, Information Aggregation, Fact-Checking

JEL Classification: D72, D83, D85, D91

Suggested Citation

Denter, Philipp and Ginzburg, Boris, Troll Farms and Voter Disinformation (September 3, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3919032 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3919032

Philipp Denter

Charles III University of Madrid ( email )

CL. de Madrid 126
Madrid, Madrid 28903
Spain

Boris Ginzburg (Contact Author)

Charles III University of Madrid ( email )

CL. de Madrid 126
Madrid, Madrid 28903
Spain

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