There is a thriving market for 'bad bots', online services that enable scams, spread of disinformation and political influence. "Only when we have insight into that black market can something be done about it," says Jon Roozenbeek. Shortly he'll begin his work at the VU Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.
With his research The Economy of Digital Influence Operations, he has been awarded a Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
What are you researching and what do you hope to achieve?
My research focuses on how misleading information spreads through social networks, and what we can do about it. I hope that we will gain insights about the black market that supports the production of this kind of information, and what we can do to bring this black market to light.
Why is this relevant right now?
Research shows that up to a quarter of all internet traffic consists of so-called 'bad bots', which are used to extort money from people, spread political disinformation or shut down sites with DDoS attacks. We still have a pretty poor understanding of how this works and how to detect and eliminate such bots, so it's very important to develop creative methods for this.
How does the Vidi grant help your work move forward?
I hope that with this project we can look at disinformation in a different way: by focusing on the digital manipulation market (where you can buy fake likes and bot armies for next to nothing) we can hopefully discover ways to make disinformation more expensive.
How does it feel, winning a Vidi?
In Drenthe we say: could have done worse!