A flood of fake social media profiles inundating political discussion and reaching millions of Australians during an election campaign has sparked warnings of a growing threat.

Almost one in five accounts analysed on X, formerly Twitter, discussing the election were fake and used AI-generated images and emotionally manipulative language, according to disinformation detection company Cyabra.

One account posted more than 500 times and reached about 726,000 users, with the scale and impact of disinformation campaigns underscoring the growing threat to electoral integrity, the company said.

Disinformation and spam posts targeted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton while other bots pushed pro-Labor narratives to give the impression there’s a groundswell of support, it found.

The primary narrative promoted by the bots was attacking the Labor Party to discredit Mr Albanese and “undermine his political standing” by amplifying messages about the government being incompetent, economically damaging and too progressive, it found.

“This messaging was deliberately amplified to erode public trust ahead of the election,” Cyabra said in its Disinformation Down Under report.

Public discussion centred around Labor and the coalition was analysed throughout March using AI technology to discover fake activity, which can include the frequency of posting and language and hashtags used by bots.

The accounts coined hashtags including “Labor fail” and “Labor lies” and ridiculed the prime minister with nicknames like “Fweeby Albaneesy”, in reference to receiving free upgrades.

Ridicule and emotionally charged language were used to maximise visibility and provoke engagement with satire and memes employed to further the reach of each post, Cyabra said.

The fake profiles on X attacked both major parties but with different strategies as the coalition was targeted with pro-Labor posts including with hashtags like “Dutton must go” and “LNP corruption party”.

Fake profiles sought to portray Mr Dutton as out of touch or inept while branding the party as broadly incompetent and corrupt, “creating the illusion of widespread support for the current administration and reinforcing partisan sentiment”, the report found.

Bots even outperformed real users on several occasions, “allowing them to dominate the narrative,” it said.

“The overwhelming presence and influence of these fake accounts point to a deliberate attempt to distort public opinion, drown out authentic voices, and manipulate the political conversation on social media.”

But it was hard to determine who was behind the bots and targeted misinformation campaigns, the company said.

Australian Electoral Commission acting electoral commissioner Jeff Pope has warned of potential impacts to integrity, including misinformation and disinformation campaigns.

There’s also perceived concern about the impact of AI impacting electoral integrity despite actual incidents in 2024, dubbed the year of elections as half the world’s population went to the polls, being very low, the acting commissioner said.

Melbourne University’s deputy vice chancellor Michael Wesley pointed to the violent Capitol riots in the United States as he warned of increasing political polarisation, the rise of extremist candidates and parties and the de-legitimisation of previously trusted sources like media, government and universities.

Dominic Giannini
(Australian Associated Press)