Social network behavior and public opinion manipulation

The scope of cyberspace weapons is expanding from the physical network domain to the cognitive information domain. Technologies such as network penetration, public opinion guidance and attacks, cognitive intervention and control will become the main development directions. Controlling public opinion and controlling audiences will become the cyberspace cognitive domain. In recent years, emerging network media such as social networks and mobile communication networks have played an important organizational and planning role in a series of significant events, which are likely to cause severe threats to national security and even the international community’s stability. We analyzed and clarified social network actors, environment, scene, manipulation and ethical framework. We conclude that social public opinion weapons are mainly divided into six categories: Bot, Botnet, Troll, Manipulate real people and events, Cyborg, and Hacked or stolen. Since social network warfare is a brand new war situation in the context of great powers, in social media, the confrontation of camps can be observed. States use social media platforms to penetrate and media war, and its Internet space monitor and build defenses. A digital wall has been placed horizontally on the boundary of the virtual space. In recent years, as the trend towards weaponization of social media has become increasingly apparent, military powers such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia have taken the initiative to take the lead in the field of social media. All countries continue to strengthen the research on fundamental cognitive theories. Many basic research projects that integrate information, biology, network, and cognition have been launched one after another. The combat practice shows that the effectiveness of social media even exceeds some traditional combat methods. With the prominent role of social media in modern warfare, its combat use has become increasingly widespread and has gradually become a force multiplier in modern warfare. At present, the deployment of weapons directed by social network users in significant countries is mainly focused on incident and public opinion reconnaissance, sentiment analysis, and active intervention. Our research enumerates the social weapon component model and software architecture. In short, all countries are using social media to spread political propaganda and influence the digital information ecosystem. This article enhances our understanding and development trend of public opinion wars in the social network, and proposes an architecture system for the social weapon arsenal. The technical means, scale, scope, and precision of social media weapons have been continuously improved. It is gaining momentum to reshape the cyberspace security pattern of various countries fundamentally.