Social networks as an instrument of PSYOP in foreign policy: challenge for the national security

The object of this research is the process of creating political discourse, setting the “agenda” via social media as foreign policy instrument and a threat to national security of the country. The article explores the role of the online platform in shaping public opinion and discourse in political interests. The subject of this research is the social media (social networks, video and image hosting services, blogs, etc.) Particular attention is given to structurization of the concept of social media, social networks as the instruments that form social reality and affect public opinion. Emphasis is placed on the technical aspects of the types of social networks, control, thereof. Comparative analysis is conducted on the practice of using Internet resources in China, and experience of creating the Golden Shield Project. The scientific novelty of consists in the cross-scientific analysis on the basis of the interpretive pattern of social constructionism, what distinguishes this work from the vast majority of similar research of dedicated to the use of social media as an instrument of political technologies and PSYOP. Being a cross-scientific analysis at the intersection of IT (information technology), international relations (political science), and social psychology, the study leans on the theoretical concepts of political realism and neorealism, psychological constructivism and behavioral psychology. The author underlines the importance of comprehensive approach towards leveling the potential threats of using social media as an instrument of PSYOP. First and foremost, it pertains to the development of a coherent all-encompassing system with ideological and value foundation for creating the discourse. The article describes the relevant approaches towards the “sovereign Internet"; carries out comparative analysis of the Chinese experience and Russian ineffective initiatives, such as blocking separately resources, shortage of public-private partnership in the IT sector (by analogy with the extremely successful experience of China in this sphere). The author offers a general frame of possible steps on ensuring national security in the online platform of social media.

Network Unavailable

This paper problematizes assumptions of global all-pervading ‘available’ network culture by examining ‘network unavailability’ phenomenon in contemporary Chinese network culture through a post-colonial critique. The central argument of ‘network unavailable’ in China is contextualized by the performativity of the Great Firewall and the Golden Shield Project, Chinese media artist Fei Jun’s net art project Interesting World (2019) in the Venice Biennale and network happenings during the 2019 Anti-extradition Law Amendment Bill protests in Hong Kong. Through these examples the author argues that network culture in China is political and geopolitical and the discussion of networks should go beyond mere structuralism and emphasize the everyday life, tactical, and microscopic decision-making process.

China

Computational propaganda is a growing concern in Western democracies, with evidence of online opinion manipulation orchestrated by robots, fake accounts, and misinformation in many recent political events. China, the country with the most sophisticated regime of Internet censorship and control in the world, presents an interesting and under-studied example of how computational propaganda is used. This chapter summarizes the landscape of current knowledge in relation to public opinion manipulation in China. It addressees the questions of whether and how computational propaganda is being used in and about China, whose interests are furthered by this computational propaganda; and what is the effect of this computational propaganda on the landscape of online information in and about China. It also addresses the issue of how the case of computational propaganda in China can inform the current efforts of Western democracies to tackle fake news, online bots, and computational propaganda. This chapter presents four case studies of computational propaganda in and about China: the Great Firewall and the Golden Shield project; positive propaganda on Twitter aimed at foreign audiences; the anti–Chinese state bots on Twitter; and domestic public opinion manipulation on Weibo. Surprisingly, I find that there is little evidence of automation on Weibo and little evidence of automation associated with state interests on Twitter. However, I find that issues associated with anti-state perspectives, such as the pro-democracy movement, contain a large amount of automation, dominating Chinese-language information in certain hashtags associated with China and Chinese politics on Twitter.