Social Media Manipulation and the Threat to Democracy: Analyzing the Role of Disinformation

Authors

  • Nelson Mandela Department of Animation & Virtual Reality, School of Computer Science & IT, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India,Jain University image/svg+xml
  • Poovarasan G Department of Animation & Virtual Reality, School of Computer Science & IT, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India
  • Suneesh KS Department of Animation & Virtual Reality, School of Computer Science & IT, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India
  • Broskhan Department of Animation & Virtual Reality, School of Computer Science & IT, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53032/tvcr/2025.v7n1.35

Keywords:

Disinformation, Manipulation, Social Media, Democracy, Misleading

Abstract

Social media is a powerful communication channel, but it’s also a channel for disinformation, and that is a real threat to democracy. This article analyzes social media in the fight against fake news, exploring how they mislead the masses, influence elections, and create heated debates. A systematic literature review is a methodology to explore the process of how social media manipulation works and how it harms democracy. These studies use a mixed-methods design to study specific case studies and social media interactions to reveal how both adversaries and good users use social media to disseminate false or misleading content. Its study makes legislative recommendations on how to lessen the risk of disinformation while keeping social media open.

References

• Acar, & Murthy. (2018). Social Media Use in the Nonprofit Sector: Exploring Organizational Communication on Facebook. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(2), 319–339. https://doi.org/doi:10.1177/0899764017733807

• Bassil-Morozow, H. (2023). The New Heroines in Film and Television: Post-Jungian Perspectives on Contemporary Female Characters (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003253044

• Das, S., & Bhowmick, S. (2020). Digital Empowerment through Social Media: Pathways for Poverty Alleviation. Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 18(2), 85–103.

• Freelon, D., McIlwain, C. D., & Clark, M. D. (2016). Beyond the Hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the Online Struggle for Offline Justice. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2747066

• Ghosh, D. (2018). Disinformation Is Becoming Unstoppable. Public Interest Technology.

• Giroux, H. A., & McLaren, P. (1994). Between borders: Pedagogy and the politics of cultural studies. Routledge.

• Ha, L., Andreu Perez, L., & Ray, R. (2021). Mapping Recent Development in Scholarship on Fake News and Misinformation, 2008 to 2017: Disciplinary Contribution, Topics, and Impact. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 290–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219869402

• Howard, P. N., & Hussain, M. M. (2013). Democracy’s fourth wave? Digital media and the Arab Spring. Oxford University Press.

• Jenkins, & Deuze. (2019). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York University Press.

• Kim, J., Tabibian, B., Oh, A., Schölkopf, B., & Gomez-Rodriguez, M. (2018). Leveraging the Crowd to Detect and Reduce the Spread of Fake News and Misinformation. Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, 324–332. https://doi.org/10.1145/3159652.3159734

• Laila Kadiwal. (2023). Critical feminist resistance to the politics of hate in India. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 21(5), 734–753. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2222074

• Levin, S. (2017). Facebook promised to tackle fake news. But the evidence shows it’s not working. Support the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/16/facebook-fake-news-tools-not-working?MPA_Daily_News_Roundup

• Lewandowsky, S., & Van Der Linden, S. (2021). Countering Misinformation and Fake News through Inoculation and Prebunking. European Review of Social Psychology, 32(2), 348–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2021.1876983

• Michael, D. (1995). Behind the Mule Race and Class in African-American Politics.

• Miró-Llinares, F., & Aguerri, J. C. (2023). Misinformation about fake news: A systematic critical review of empirical studies on the phenomenon and its status as a ‘threat.’ European Journal of Criminology, 20(1), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370821994059

• Molina, M. D., Sundar, S. S., Le, T., & Lee, D. (2021). “Fake News” Is Not Simply False Information: A Concept Explication and Taxonomy of Online Content. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 180–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219878224

• Mrah, I. (2017). Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills: Towards a Rethinking of EFL Coursebooks in Moroccan High Schools. Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics, 2(3), 225. https://doi.org/10.21462/jeltl.v2i3.79

• Orlando. (2017). How to Help Kids Navigate Fake News and Misinformation Online. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com

• O’Sullivan, D. (2005). Cultural politics and Irish education since the 1950’s: Policy paradigms and power. Institute of Public Administration.

• Patnaik, N. (2021). Geographical Indications Protection In India: Case Study Analysis On ‘Tirupati Laddu.’ Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research, 3(1).

• Pennycook, G., Binnendyk, J., Newton, C., & Rand, D. G. (2021). A Practical Guide to Doing Behavioral Research on Fake News and Misinformation. Collabra: Psychology, 7(1), 25293. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.25293

• Putnam. (n.d.). Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.

• Rahman, A., & Singh, P. (2021). Digital Pathways to Poverty Reduction: The Role of Social Media in Developing Economies. International Journal of Social Media and Society, 5(2), 102–119.

• Scheufele, D. A., & Krause, N. M. (2019). Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(16), 7662–7669. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805871115

• Scott, B. (2018). Disinformation Is Becoming Unstoppable. The Center for Internet and Society (CIS). https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/publications/disinformation-becoming-unstoppable/

• Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. Yale University Press.

• Valkenburg, P. M., Pouwels, J. L., Beyens, I., Van Driel, I. I., & Keijsers, L. (2021). Adolescents’ social media experiences and their self-esteem: A person-specific susceptibility perspective. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000037

• Vicario, M. D., Quattrociocchi, W., Scala, A., & Zollo, F. (2019). Polarization and Fake News: Early Warning of Potential Misinformation Targets. ACM Transactions on the Web, 13(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3316809

• Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146–1151. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559

Downloads

Published

2025-01-31

How to Cite

Nelson Mandela, Poovarasan G, Suneesh KS, & Broskhan. (2025). Social Media Manipulation and the Threat to Democracy: Analyzing the Role of Disinformation. The Voice of Creative Research, 7(1), 307–316. https://doi.org/10.53032/tvcr/2025.v7n1.35

Issue

Section

Research Article