2023-09-03 16:57:18
In a recent scandal that has rocked the world of media in Colombia, Noticias Caracol, a few weeks ago, exposed surprising links between the wife of a drug trafficker from Casanare and the Gustavo Petro campaign. Since then, a wave of attacks and discredit directed at journalists and the media in the country has been unleashed.
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In the midst of the electoral season that took place between August 13 and 21, 2023, social networks became the battlefield of a massive attack aimed at discrediting the complaints, investigations and political control carried out by the journalists. The hashtags #CaracolMiente, #SemanaMiente, #ElColombianoMiente, #RCNMiente and #ElTiempoMiente dominated Twitter and expanded to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and even VK, the Russian version of Facebook.
Using social listening tools similar to those used by political strategists to track and profile users, 3,107,200 mentions of these hashtags were recorded between August 13 and 21. Surprisingly, more than half of these mentions came from outside Colombia, suggesting the possible coordination of Pacto Histórico-affiliated influencers operating bot accounts newly created in August.
The extraction of this data was carried out through the Application Programming Interface (API) of the social networks, which provides public information of the users, including photos, tweets, states, comments, location and images, with permissions granted by the users. users in their terms and conditions. Most of the accounts apparently located abroad used VPN technology to hide their real location.
Regarding the geographical distribution of the mentions, 82 countries were identified where the attacks once morest Caracol were predominant. The exception were Tanzania and Malaysia, with 200 and 100 mentions respectively, in hashtags like #SemanaMiente. Caracol was the most affected medium with 1,658,000 mentions that made it a trend for almost three days. There were 846,300 Twitter accounts that posted negatively regarding the medium, in addition to mentions on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and VK.
79% of the accounts that participated identified themselves as male, 19% as female, and 1% did not specify gender. In addition to countries with a significant Colombian population, such as the United States, Spain, and Mexico, mentions were made from Angola, Russia, Vietnam, Lithuania, Uruguay, Nicaragua, and even Vatican City.
These accounts appear to have been automated to replicate content and generate automated responses for the purpose of spreading a smear message once morest the media. The programming of these bots indicated a focus on users interested in topics such as law, soccer, technology, education, family, politics, and the economy.
In second place, the hashtag #SemanaMiente received 762,200 mentions on Twitter, 200 comments on YouTube and 100 hashtags on TikTok. There were also attacks once morest RCN and El Tiempo with 581,800 and 84,300 mentions respectively. Finally, El Colombiano faced 20,900 mentions and 19,300 authors on Twitter, with only 10,000 registered accounts in Colombia.
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In short, this coordinated attack, which took place from August 13 to 21, had all the hallmarks of a warehouse operation, since behind it were not citizens, but computer programs designed to undermine the integrity of the media. communication and research.
How this strategy works
In a recent analysis of the wave of cyberattacks that rocked the media in Colombia, it is discovered how the influencers and key accounts behind these coordinated attacks operate. Among notable figures of the Pacto Histórico, such as Daniel Rozo (@Donizquierdo) and Daniela Beltrán (@smilelalis), as well as prominent politicians such as Piedad Córdoba, Wilson Arias and Alejo Vergel, an intriguing pattern was found.
Despite the controversy surrounding the exposure of links between a Casanare drug trafficker and Gustavo Petro’s campaign, the accounts of the mentioned influencers issued no more than 4 or 5 tweets regarding the controversy. This is largely due to his massive reach, gathering more than 700,000 followers in total. In particular, “Don Izquierdo” leads with more than 273,000 followers who read his attack tweets. This massive reach lends legitimacy to attacks, especially when they come from figures holding public office in Congress.
Contrasting with these influencers, the @Cmloandrs account, belonging to engineer Camilo Espinosa, stood out as one of the most active in attacking the media, with a total of 124 tweets. Another account was dedicated to profiling other self-described “progressive” accounts.
One of the intriguing features of these accounts, in addition to their bot behavior, is their purely electoral focus. In addition to attacking the media and participating in disputes related to the Historical Pact, they also promote candidates like Gustavo Bolívar in Bogotá and Juan Carlos Upequi, one of Daniel Quintero’s files for the Medellín Mayor’s Office.
So what is the purpose behind these attacks? These attacks are part of a strategy known as Coordinated Influence Operations, which seeks to achieve a specific effect on a target audience. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this strategy involves the use of bots, trolls, spam, misinformation, fake reviews, , and cyber attacks.
The attack on the mainstream media was not an off-the-cuff response, but rather a coordinated counter-attack in response to journalistic investigations into the Historic Pact campaign financing. This episode highlights the growing influence of digital politics and the use of bots in the public sphere.
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The revelation that the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, relies on bots to boost his presence on social networks sheds light on the magnitude of the problem. More than 63 percent of Quintero’s followers appear to be bots or inactive, and this pattern is also reflected in the count of President Gustavo Petro and other politicians. This phenomenon raises questions regarding the authenticity of opinion on social networks and the role of bots in today’s digital democracy, where truth is often confused with fiction.
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