Imagine a country with deep political sections, as different groups do not trust each other and it appears that violence is possible. Now, imagine a flood of political images, hatefulmes and satirical videos from local and foreign sources that take over social media. What can happen after that?
Make the wide use of social media during times of political troubles and violence it is difficult to prevent conflict and peacebuilding. Social media changes, with new technologies and strategies available to influence what people believe during political crises. These include New ways to enhance beliefs and goalsand Get supportand Diaspora in Humanityand Violence justification and Cure Or rejecting uncomfortable facts.
At the same time, The technologies themselves have become more advanced. More and more, social media campaigns use pictures such as memes, videos and photos – whether edited or not – which have a greater impact on people more than just a text message.
It is difficult for artificial intelligence systems to understand the images compared to the text. For example, it is easier to track the publications that say “Ukrainians are the Nazis” from finding and understanding fake pictures Show Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi symbols. But these types of images have become more common. Just as the value of the image is a thousand words, the value of the M. is a thousand tweets.
Our team Computer and Sociologists I dealt with the challenge of interpreting the image content by combining artificial intelligence methods and human topic experts to study how visual social media publications change in high -risk situations. Our research shows that these changes in social media publications, especially those that have pictures, work as Strong indicators for the next collective violence.
Increase the memes
Our latest analysis found that in the two weeks that preceded Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine there was a Almost 9000 % increase in the number of jobs And increase more than 5,000 % in the processed images of Ross Milbloggers. Milbloggers are bloggers who focus on current military conflicts.
These huge increases show the intensity of the online advertising campaign in Russia and how social media is used to influence people’s opinions and justify the invasion.
This also shows the need to better monitor and analyze visual content on social media. To conduct our analysis, we collected the full date of functions and photos from the 989 Milbloggers accounts on the Telegram messaging application. This includes approximately 6 million jobs and more than 3 million pictures. Each post and copy of time was sealed and classified to facilitate detailed analysis.
Media forensic medicine
We have already developed a set of Artificial intelligence tools Critical to discover image changes and manipulation. For example, one discovered image appears Mimi loyal to Russia He is mocking Putin’s anti -Putin journalist and former Russian soldier Arkadi Babchinko, who was deathed by Ukrainian security services to expose an assassination plot against him.
The Mm is characterized by “players who do not die, and they are accused”, referring to the characters of the life that returns to life after death. This makes the light of Pachinko’s dilemma and explains the use of pictures treated to transfer political messages and influence public opinion.
This is just one example of Millions of pictures Strategically manipulated to enhance different novels. Our statistical analysis revealed a huge increase in both the number of pictures and the extent of manipulation before the invasion.
The political context is very important
Although these artificial intelligence systems Very good to find fakeThey are unable to understand the political contexts of the images. Therefore, it is very important for artificial intelligence scientists to work closely with sociologists in order to properly explain these results.
Our artificial intelligence systems also classified the images according to the similarities, which then allowed the topic experts to analyze the image collections based on the content of the narrative and the cultural and political specific meanings. This is impossible to do widely without supporting artificial intelligence.
For example, a fake picture of French President Emmanuel Macron with the Ukrainian ruler Vitaly Kim may be meaningless to the world of artificial intelligence. But for political scientists, it seems that the image does not remove the prominent Ukrainian courage, unlike foreign leaders who seemed to be afraid of Russian nuclear threats. The goal was to enhance Ukrainian doubts about their European allies.
Meme Warfare
the Step to visual media In recent years, it brings a new type of data that researchers have not yet studied in detail.
Seeing pictures of researchers can help understand how opponents frame each other and how this can lead to a political conflict. By studying visual content, researchers can know how stories and ideas spread, which helps us to understand the relevant psychological and social factors.
This is especially important to find more advanced and accurate ways that people are affected. Such projects can also contribute Improving early warning efforts And reduce the risk of violence and instability.
This article has been republished from ConversationAn independent, non -profit news organization brings you facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Tim Wingerand The University of Notrendam and Ernesto Verdigaand The University of Notrendam
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Tim Winjer is receiving funding from the US Defense Department and the United States Agency for International Development.
Ernesto Verdeja does not work with shares or consult them in or receive funding from any company or institution that will benefit from this article, and has not revealed any related affiliations that exceed its academic appointment.
