Под прикритие: използване на Фейсбук страници с развлекателно съдържание за разпространение на дезинформация
Undercover: Using Facebook pages with entertainment content to spread disinformation

Summary/Abstract: 72% of Bulgarians use social media, primarily Facebook, as a news source. This alarmingly high indicator raises the question of what kind of news Bulgarian users read on Facebook, where and how they find it. The presented research aims to determine whether political information, including disinformation, is shared in a coordinated manner through “funny” Facebook pages. The results show that seemingly entertaining Facebook pages actively distribute content presented as news, including political news. The studied pages form clusters around groups of websites using coordinated sharing to disseminate the websites` content. The overall content of the websites can be described as “bullshit” in the sense of outright nonsense spread by unknown agents with hidden motives. Although the studied clusters use the “clickbait farms” model and the political content is only a small part of the overall content, we find that the studied clusters create clear and consistent attitudes towards certain political figures. Our research provides strong arguments that these clusters could be easily used for political influence operations. Furthermore, they influence the public`s perceptions of politics and journalism in a highly negative way.

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