Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi

This paper deals with a case study that provides unique and original insight into social media credibility attacks against the Saudi journalist and activist, Jamal Khashoggi. To get the data, I searched all the state-run tweets sent by Arab trolls (78,274,588 in total), and I used Cedar, Canada’s su...

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Autor principal:	Al-Rawi Ahmed
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	De Gruyter 2021
Materias:	middle east disinformation networked authoritarianism social media jamal khashoggi Bibliography. Library science. Information resources Z
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5b0a9da295be495497edaa6f793f5bc1
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:5b0a9da295be495497edaa6f793f5bc1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5b0a9da295be495497edaa6f793f5bc12021-12-05T14:11:00ZDisinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi2451-178110.1515/opis-2020-0118https://doaj.org/article/5b0a9da295be495497edaa6f793f5bc12021-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2020-0118https://doaj.org/toc/2451-1781This paper deals with a case study that provides unique and original insight into social media credibility attacks against the Saudi journalist and activist, Jamal Khashoggi. To get the data, I searched all the state-run tweets sent by Arab trolls (78,274,588 in total), and I used Cedar, Canada’s supercomputer, to extract all the videos and images associated with references to Khashoggi. In addition, I searched Twitter’s full data archive to cross-examine some of the hashtag campaigns that were launched the day Khashoggi disappeared and afterwards. Finally, I used CrowdTangle to understand whether some of these hashtags were also used on Facebook and Instagram. I present here evidence that just a few hours after Khashoggi’s disappearance in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Saudi trolls started a coordinated disinformation campaign against him to frame him as a terrorist, foreign agent for Qatar and Turkey, liar.... etc. The trolls also emphasized that the whole story of his disappearance and killing is a fabrication or a staged play orchestrated by Turkey and Qatar. The campaign also targeted his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, alleging she was a spy, while later they cast doubt about her claims. Some of these campaigns were launched a few months after Khashoggi’s death. Theoretically, I argue that state-run disinformation campaigns need to incorporate the dimension of intended effect. In this case study, the goal is to tarnish the reputation and credibility of Khashoggi, even after he died, in an attempt to discredit his claims and political cause, influence different audiences especially the Saudi public, and potentially reduce sympathy towards him.Al-Rawi AhmedDe Gruyterarticlemiddle eastdisinformationnetworked authoritarianismsocial mediajamal khashoggiBibliography. Library science. Information resourcesZENOpen Information Science, Vol 5, Iss 1, Pp 140-162 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	middle east disinformation networked authoritarianism social media jamal khashoggi Bibliography. Library science. Information resources Z
spellingShingle	middle east disinformation networked authoritarianism social media jamal khashoggi Bibliography. Library science. Information resources Z Al-Rawi Ahmed Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi
description	This paper deals with a case study that provides unique and original insight into social media credibility attacks against the Saudi journalist and activist, Jamal Khashoggi. To get the data, I searched all the state-run tweets sent by Arab trolls (78,274,588 in total), and I used Cedar, Canada’s supercomputer, to extract all the videos and images associated with references to Khashoggi. In addition, I searched Twitter’s full data archive to cross-examine some of the hashtag campaigns that were launched the day Khashoggi disappeared and afterwards. Finally, I used CrowdTangle to understand whether some of these hashtags were also used on Facebook and Instagram. I present here evidence that just a few hours after Khashoggi’s disappearance in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Saudi trolls started a coordinated disinformation campaign against him to frame him as a terrorist, foreign agent for Qatar and Turkey, liar.... etc. The trolls also emphasized that the whole story of his disappearance and killing is a fabrication or a staged play orchestrated by Turkey and Qatar. The campaign also targeted his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, alleging she was a spy, while later they cast doubt about her claims. Some of these campaigns were launched a few months after Khashoggi’s death. Theoretically, I argue that state-run disinformation campaigns need to incorporate the dimension of intended effect. In this case study, the goal is to tarnish the reputation and credibility of Khashoggi, even after he died, in an attempt to discredit his claims and political cause, influence different audiences especially the Saudi public, and potentially reduce sympathy towards him.
format	article
author	Al-Rawi Ahmed
author_facet	Al-Rawi Ahmed
author_sort	Al-Rawi Ahmed
title	Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi
title_short	Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi
title_full	Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi
title_fullStr	Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi
title_full_unstemmed	Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi
title_sort	disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against jamal khashoggi
publisher	De Gruyter
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/5b0a9da295be495497edaa6f793f5bc1
work_keys_str_mv	AT alrawiahmed disinformationunderanetworkedauthoritarianstatesauditrollscredibilityattacksagainstjamalkhashoggi
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Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi

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