Report shows how messaging apps are used to spread propaganda

Popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram can increasingly be used for politics, including to spread political propaganda, experts have said in a new report.

Researchers from New York University (NYU) surveyed 4,500 messaging app users in nine countries and interviewed political strategists in 17 countries to find out how bad actors are using platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram to manipulate public opinion. 

Sixty-two per cent of the users surveyed had received political content on those apps, the report found, and of those that got political content, 55 per cent of that information came from people they didn’t know. 

That’s because platforms like WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram “lack many of the traditional mechanisms” of content moderation that other social media platforms have and monetise features that amplify disinformation, the report continued. 

“While presenting themselves as platforms designed for secure and private communications among loved ones, some messaging apps monetise their products through features that enable large-scale reach and message virality,” it said. 

Paid features boost audiences for disinformation

Political operatives are using paid features on these messaging apps to get access to more people, the report found. 

WhatsApp’s Business Platform offers subscribers a “green tick” of verification, automated messaging and an unlimited customer reach that amplifies their content, the report said. 

There’s also an opt-in feature for WhatsApp users to decide whether they want to receive messages from paid businesses, according to the app’s FAQ section. 

WhatsApp’s messaging policy says government bodies are allowed to use their platform, but political parties, politicians and political campaigns are not. They also told researchers that they put in place “additional resources” during elections to make sure that their policies are not being breached. 

However, the report notes that some users developed workarounds, by impersonating actors or by creating fake business names, getting verified on X and then using it as proof for WhatsApp business services. 

Viber works in a similar way, where users can turn on a setting to stop receiving messages as an opt-out, according to the app’s website. 

The report found a workaround to this in Ukraine, where political consultants would get verified Viber accounts through a messaging “partner” or vendor. 

Ukrainian actors would then launch social media campaigns asking users to subscribe to their mailing lists using QR codes which unknowingly opted people into getting communications from their groups, the report continued.

On Telegram, any usercan pay under €5 a month for many additional features like automated messages, quick replies, profile badges, and chatbot support. 

This lets political operatives pass as “official” accounts on Telegram without needing to be verified, the NYU report found. 

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Telegram also lets anyone buy ad placements in their high-subscriber channels, which the app said generates roughly 1 trillion views every month. 

Rakuten, Viber’s parent company, said in a statement sent to Euronews Next that their policies and features “help them make informed decisions about which content to trust and engage with,” on their app.

“We continue to develop our app and enforce our policies with our users in mind,” their statement reads.

Euronews Next reached out to Meta, the company behind WhatsApp, and Telegram for comment but did not receive an immediate reply. 

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Platforms also amplify disinformation

The paid features of these messaging apps amplify longstanding disinformation techniques, the report said. 

The first step to getting a message out there is to create or infiltrate pre-existing groups on social media channels and, because Viber doesn’t cap the number of participants in a community or channel, it “plays directly” into their strategy, the report said. 

Even if groups they infiltrate are considered apolitical, propagandists “exploit members’ professed interests to craft political messages that are likely to resonate,” the report said. 

Group members can sometimes be “sock puppet” accounts, fake profiles manufactured by bad actors to represent a person or business “with a particular viewpoint,” the report said. 

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While this is a common disinformation tactic on social media, sock puppet accounts are “arguably more problematic” on messaging apps because they have “greater obscurity”. 

Propagandists can also cross-post, where they post the same message on several social media channels at once. 

On Telegram, for example, users create bots that automate sharing content to X. Another Indian app called ShareChat lets users cross-post Telegram content on WhatsApp and other Meta-owned platforms, like Facebook and Instagram. 

Putting all these tactics together creates what researchers call “feedback loops” where the same content continues “popping up in different parts of the platform ecosystem,” the report found. 

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Recommendations for messaging apps

The researchers say one challenge for these apps is that while encryption can be used to conceal by propagandists, it can be of value to activists “at risk of surveillance”.

With this in mind, the authors offer a long list of recommendations for messaging app companies, such as putting in place account-creation limits and stronger vetting for business accounts. 

For policymakers, the report suggests including encrypted messaging platforms within existing regulation but not to weaken it. 

“The value of encrypted messaging for human rights defenders and society more broadly exceeds the threat of disinformation on encrypted chat apps,” the report reads. 

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One way to do this is to force companies to disclose content-neutral information about how their policies and enforcement systems are working to fight disinformation.