Rhizomorphic political manipulation on the Internet: specifics and technologies
[Ризоморфная Политическая Манипуляция В Интернете: Специфика И Технологии]

Relevance of the study. Today, interpenetration of the Internet and politics directly affects the transformation of the political process, the digitalization of political governance and modification of the schemes and models of interaction between political institutions and citizens. As a result, we face the problem of changing such an ambiguous form of management as political manipulation, which acquires the features of a "rhizome", i.e. vector communications are disrupted, the hierarchy of the subject and object is eliminated and manipulation becomes viral. The purpose of this work is to study the change in the mechanism, features and technology of rhizomorphic political manipulation. The methodological basis of this study includes a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of rhizomorphic political manipulation, as well as investigation of its features and technologies. The study is based on the analysis of the works of domestic and foreign researchers devoted to the phenomenon of manipulation on the Internet, including S.V. Volodenkov, V.E. Bagdasaryan A.Yu Bubnov, N.R. Krasovskaya, A. Georgakopoulou, U.Reisach. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the description of the phenomenon of rhizomorphic political manipulation, as well as the identification of its technologies, which are most fully manifested in modern political Internet communication. The main result of this study is identification of the key features of rhizomorphic political manipulation, which differ from the traditional one-vector manipulation. Among these features are the possibilities of use on various Internet platforms, extensive use of specific Internet resources, the merger of the subject and the object into a "manipulated manipulator", and the specific nature of manipulation which is not perceived by the subject. It is especially difficult to isolate rhizomorphic political manipulation technologies due to the nature of its implementation. However, during the study of literature on similar topics and direct observation of the political Internet communication of ordinary Internet users, we identified a group of technologies that most closely meet the above criteria. They include such technologies as: “Sock puppet”, “Overton Window”, “Language manipulation”, “Twitter revolution”, “common car technology” (or Granfalloon technology), Factoid technology and flash mob technology. The analysis of the features and technologies of rhizomorphic political manipulation allowed us to determine that this type of manipulation is becoming more common. Due to its discreetness it becomes an extremely promising form of manipulation. Thus, as part of further research, it is important to study in detail the mechanism of this form of manipulation. Ultimately, by understanding the mechanism, we will be able to develop the methods and technologies to resist rhizomorphic political manipulation. Key words: political manipulation, risoma, risomorphic political manipulation, Internet communication, digitalization of politics.

Stroganov, Vadim (Строганов, Вадим), 2021. "Rhizomorphic political manipulation on the Internet: specifics and technologies [Ризоморфная Политическая Манипуляция В Интернете: Специфика И Технологии]," Voprosy upravleniya / Management Issues, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, pages 94-104.

Handle: RePEc:rnp:mngiss:m21607

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