Andrea’s internship project with BT explored the role of social media in the recent spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories around coronavirus. Disinformation is a major online harm and can have serious consequences as a result of offline action taken by a small number of individuals.

In particular, UK telecommunications operators have seen a sharp rise in incidents of vandalism by anti-5G activists, taken in by online conspiracy theorists. This has potentially fatal consequences as it can interfere with emergency networks and prevent access to services such as 999.

Observation of open-source intelligence (OSINT) can provide insight into emerging threats for security personnel. However, OSINT can have a poor signal-to-noise ratio, with a challenge in separating malicious actors, civilian reporters, contrarian commentators and news broadcasts.

The aim of the project has been to identify messages that relate directly to emerging offline events, such as incidents of arson, harassment or other activities being carried out by those in conspiracy theory communities. The outcome will be beneficial in supplying new intelligence to physical security teams and help focus limited resources to where they can have the most impact.

The project also sought to map topics of discussion and identify emerging trends and themes of disinformation as well as those actors responsible for the distribution. This will help to understand the more overt threats of disinformation, such as the role in anti-vaccination and anti-mask movements. This ability to identify online activity indicating a shift from mainstream to extreme views would be beneficial in developing interventions, proactively addressing communities.

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