Latin America and the New Global Order

Global geopolitical relations are being shaken to their roots, and no region in the world is more entangled in this than Latin America. Trump’s foreign policy is transforming the role played by the United States on the world stage, questioning multilateralism and casting a shadow on the whole idea of global governance. Other world powers, especially Russia and China, are not sitting idly by. The European Union has an opportunity to take on the mantle of guarantor of liberal values and the multilateral order, and to strengthen its alliance with Latin American countries. This report helps to delve deeper into the region’s shifting dynamics. How are the US, China, and the EU competing in terms of political alliances and economic projection towards the Latin American region? And how are some of the main Latin American countries (namely Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela) contributing to change the regional picture

Twitter and social bots : an analysis of the 2021 Canadian election

Les médias sociaux sont désormais des outils de communication incontournables, notamment lors de campagnes électorales. La prévalence de l’utilisation de plateformes de communication en ligne suscite néanmoins des inquiétudes au sein des démocraties occidentales quant aux risques de manipulation des électeurs, notamment par le biais de robots sociaux. Les robots sociaux sont des comptes automatisés qui peuvent être utilisés pour produire ou amplifier le contenu en ligne tout en se faisant passer pour de réels utilisateurs. Certaines études, principalement axées sur le cas des États-Unis, ont analysé la propagation de contenus de désinformation par les robots sociaux en période électorale, alors que d’autres ont également examiné le rôle de l’affiliation partisane sur les comportements et les tactiques favorisées par les robots sociaux. Toutefois, la question à savoir si l'orientation partisane des robots sociaux a un impact sur la quantité de désinformation politique qu’ils propagent demeure sans réponse. Par conséquent, l’objectif principal de ce travail de recherche est de déterminer si des différences partisanes peuvent être observées dans (i) le nombre de robots sociaux actifs pendant la campagne électorale canadienne de 2021, (ii) leurs interactions avec les comptes réels, et (iii) la quantité de contenu de désinformation qu’ils ont propagé. Afin d’atteindre cet objectif de recherche, ce mémoire de maîtrise s’appuie sur un ensemble de données Twitter de plus de 11,3 millions de tweets en anglais provenant d’environ 1,1 million d'utilisateurs distincts, ainsi que sur divers modèles pour distinguer les comptes de robots sociaux des comptes humains, déterminer l’orientation partisane des utilisateurs et détecter le contenu de désinformation politique véhiculé. Les résultats de ces méthodes distinctes indiquent des différences limitées dans le comportement des robots sociaux lors des dernières élections fédérales. Il a tout de même été possible d'observer que les robots sociaux de tendance conservatrice étaient plus nombreux que leurs homologues de tendance libérale, mais que les robots sociaux d’orientation libérale étaient ceux qui ont interagi le plus avec les comptes authentiques par le biais de retweets et de réponses directes, et qui ont propagé le plus de contenu de désinformation.Social media have now become essential communication tools, including within the context of electoral campaigns. However, the prevalence of online communication platforms has raised concerns in Western democracies about the risks of voter manipulation, particularly through social bot accounts. Social bots are automated computer algorithms which can be used to produce or amplify online content while posing as authentic users. Some studies, mostly focused on the case of the United States, analyzed the propagation of disinformation content by social bots during electoral periods, while others have also examined the role of partisanship on social bots’ behaviors and activities. However, the question of whether social bots’ partisan-leaning impacts the amount of political disinformation content they generate online remains unanswered. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to determine whether partisan differences could be observed in (i) the number of active social bots during the 2021 Canadian election campaign, (ii) their interactions with humans, and (iii) the amount of disinformation content they propagated. In order to reach this research objective, this master’s thesis relies on an original Twitter dataset of more than 11.3 million English tweets from roughly 1.1 million distinct users, as well as diverse models to distinguish between social bot and human accounts, determine the partisan-leaning of users, and detect political disinformation content. Based on these distinct methods, the results indicate limited differences in the behavior of social bots in the 2021 federal election. It was however possible to observe that conservative-leaning social bots were more numerous than their liberal-leaning counterparts, but liberal-leaning accounts were those who interacted more with authentic accounts through retweets and replies and shared the most disinformation content

Latin America and the new global order : dangers and opportunities in a multipolar world

No abstract availabl

Disinformation and propaganda – impact on the functioning of the rule of law in the EU and its Member States. Study Requested by the LIBE committee. CEPS Special Report, February 2019

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs and requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, assesses the impact of disinformation and strategic political propaganda disseminated through online social media sites. It examines effects on the functioning of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights in the EU and its Member States. The study formulates recommendations on how to tackle this threat to human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It specifically addresses the role of social media platform providers in this regard

Issue Ownership And Framing Of Digital Privacy On Twitter

The issue ownership theory states political parties tend to emphasize the issues they are perceived to own in a bid to gain an advantage in public opinion. Although tested on different established political issues and in mass communicational settings, the theory has not been adequately tested for new and evolving political issues and on social media. This study attempts to test issue ownership theory and examine episodic and thematic media framing in Twitter conversations of US senators regarding the issue of digital privacy. Combination of computerized and manual content analysis is used to download and analyze all US senators’ tweets related to the issue. The results show marginal issue ownership effort by Republicans, and reverse issue ownership, also known as issue trespassing, effort by Democrats. The senators who were active about the issue in the Congress were also active on Twitter. The senators used comparatively more episodic framing in the beginning period and thematic framing in the middle period of the time frame. The results suggest senators, being a member of a deliberative political body, did not follow partisan rhetoric on digital privacy. On the other hand, the mass-personal nature of Twitter is related with the medium having comparatively little issue-owning cues. Future suggestions for issue ownership studies on social media settings and for non-partisan issues are discussed

Reflections on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation : HEPP2 Conference proceedings

Non peer reviewe