Troll factory – simulate your troll’s network

Months ago I found this game/simulation: Troll Factory. Produced by Yle & Yle News Lab to promote awareness on how fake news factories work by relying on bots, misinformation, and levering on emotions, fears, and stereotypes.

The specific theme of the web game/simulation is around immigration, and it uses examples of authentic social media content. The theme of the game was chosen by Yle based on background research their data shows that anti-immigration material is circulating widely in Europe, North America and Asia. Continuing information operations around immigration using fake news, internet memes and the polarization of public discourse are systematic and organized.

This very well resembles, or at least sheds some light on, La Bestia (The Beast) di M. Salvini italian far-right/populist ‘politician’. As it was also explained on this video/inquiry (only in Italian): https://youtu.be/fkCNU1Rtqws

La Bestia di Salvini has had a lot of traction during the last 4-5 years (2015-2019), in particular during the years when Lega and Salvini entered government and could rely on both visibility and easier (and according to some unlawful) access to public funding, as well as on the perceived, yet non-existing, ’emergency’ of migrants’ invasion on Italian coasts.

Here a couple of articles (in Italian) focusing on La Bestia:

1- Da Facebook a Twitter. La task force del “capitano” detta l’agenda del web

2- La propaganda social di Matteo Salvini ora la paghi tu: e ci costa mille euro al giorno