Elementary Library

Concerned Cousin

Sock Puppet

Grifter

Operative Motives ● Operate on someone else’s behalf to hide the real agenda: ○ Political gain/interference in governance ○ Influence a social issue or inflate followers ○ Attack their critics or praise themselves ○ spread or amplify false information to a mass audience Tools and Tactics ● Bots, cloned accounts created to support one side of a dispute ● Repetition by repost & sharing content across the internet ● Create the illusion of consensus around an idea/person ● Triggers hate, biases and/or prejudice via comments Wins ● Viral Content ● Furtherance of an agenda or issue that the creator secretly wants, but doesn’t want to be publicly associated with Losses ● Exposure ● Account blocks Related To: ● The Bot ● The Cyborg ● The Mimicker ● Underlying motive from the person hiring the operative ● Some operatives are used to spread propaganda or content that harms another’s reputation Tools and Tactics ● Bots ● Sock Puppets ● Edited content (Altered images, “Deep Fakes”) ● Conspiracy Theory Wins ● Goals of their “boss” are achieved ● Viral content Losses ● Lack of engagement Motives ● Surface motive is typically financial gain

Motives ● To steal money, resources and/or personal information ● Financial gain Tools and Tactics ● Grifters often target specific, vulnerable people, who are prone to trust mis/dis/malinformation ● Cloned content that looks like an official request or a legitimate advertisement ● Emotional triggers - especially those that trigger fear, empathy or guilt Wins ● Financial gain

Motives ● Being helpful, educate and save their community ● Fear that their friends & family are being duped ● Passion for a single issue Tools and Tactics ● Forwards, reposts & shares (passing on information that confirms their fears by whatever tools available) ● Confrontation (sharing false information during family gatherings, phone calls, etc) ● Triggers that drive sympathy Wins ● Empathy for their cause ● Cosigners Losses ● Disengagement from family ● Truth exposed: made to look foolish Related To: ● The Conspiracy Theorist ● The Propagandist ● The Blue Liar Motives ● Desire to be first w/ the story or seen as an authority ● As the originator of the information, they become (if even for a short time) its epicenter Tools and Tactics ● Partial/incomplete information (key details missing) ● Fragment/threaded posts (Instead of one story, the information comes in numerous fragments) ● Click & share bait qualifiers: “BREAKING!” “Happening Now!” “Developing!” Wins ● Positive Attention ● They become part of the story (by being first) ● Seen as an authority on the subject Losses ● Lack of engagement ● Discredited by more qualified sources Related To: ● The Wannabe ● The Click Chaser ● The Influencer for Hire

● Growth from individual to crowdfunding ● Access to personal, financial information Losses ● Failure to earn money ● Exposure and/or prosecution Related To:

● The Conspiracy Theorist ● The Influencer for Hire ● The Bot

Spark

Cyborg

Motives ● ½ Bot ½ Human, a Cyborg’s motivation is to fool others into believing content spread by Bots ● To make bot accounts feel more human Tools and Tactics ● Bot accounts reply to others (to make it appear human) ● Humor, irony and other context specific language ● Triggers empathy or connection Wins ● Increased positive engagement for bot accounts ● Credibility attached to bot accounts ● Creates virtual empathy Losses ● Exposure

● Lack of engagement ● Negative attention Related To: ● The Bot ● The Sock Puppet ● The Mimicker

● Exposure Related To: ● The Propagandist

● The Insider ● The Cyborg