RAPID: Immediate Social Media Data Collection in Key Election Contexts

选举对网络空间的安全和可信性构成了严重挑战。选举期间协调的信息行动和在线组织的政治暴力威胁到广泛的民主国家的完整性。我们缺乏可比较的跨国数据，无法帮助我们了解这些威胁是如何在各国之间运作的，以及政治机构、网络基础设施和社会经济背景如何塑造这些威胁。我们也缺乏关于候选社交媒体行为的全面数据。该项目将极大地增加学者对选举候选人社交媒体行为以及选民如何回应这一行为的数据的获取。这项工作将使目前不可能调查虚假信息在竞选期间如何在网上传播，以及这些信息如何影响面临民主扩张不同阶段的一系列政治的普通选民的信念。这些数据还可以为有兴趣确保选举安全的政府提供信息，并可以帮助社交媒体公司了解他们的平台在竞选期间是如何被使用的。该项目的重点是为学者们建立一个数据资源，这些学者来自社交媒体收集的关于即将到来的选举的数据，在两极分化、民主化和其他相对不稳定的背景下。研究小组有目的地对候选人社交媒体数据收集的选举背景进行采样，这些数据收集符合基于民主、两极分化、稳定和网络基础设施水平的客观标准。在所有这些背景下，研究团队正在汇编社交媒体候选人数据，包括候选人(公共)社交媒体账户、公开的候选人背景特征，以及其他捕捉全国、选举和席位(S)背景的变量。在其中三种情况下，研究小组正在选民中进行一项调查，收集以下数据：选民获取候选人在线消息的能力、选民对候选人的社交媒体活动的态度、候选人通过数字网络动员线下政治活动(包括选举暴力)的程度、政客利用在线平台传播虚假信息的频率和有效性，以及选民对其背景下政治网络空间的安全和稳定的看法。研究团队正在以网络研讨会的形式为研究生开发政治学、公共政策和网络安全方面的培训，以鼓励使用这些数据进行多学科研究。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Elections pose a critical challenge to the security and trustworthiness of cyberspace. Coordinated information operations and online organization of political violence during elections threaten the integrity of a wide range of democratic countries. We lack comparable cross-national data that can help us to understand how these threats operate across countries, and how political institutions, cyber-infrastructure, and socio-economic context shape such threats. We also lack comprehensive data about candidate social media behavior. This project will dramatically increase scholars' access to data on electoral candidates' social media behavior and how voters respond to this behavior. This work will allow currently impossible investigations of how false information travels online during electoral campaigns and how such information affects beliefs of average voters across a range of polities facing different stages of democratic expansion. These data can also inform governments interested in securing their elections and can assist social media firms in understanding how their platforms are used during campaigns.This project is focused on building a data resource for scholars from social media data collection surrounding upcoming elections in polarized, democratizing, and otherwise relatively unstable contexts. The research team is purposively sampling election contexts of candidate social media data collection that meet objective criteria based on their level of democracy, polarization, stability, and cyber infrastructure. Across all of these contexts, the research team is compiling social media candidate data, including candidate (public) social media accounts, publicly available candidate background characteristics, and other variables capturing the national, election, and seat(s) context. In three of these contexts, the research team is executing a survey among voters, collecting data on voters' ability to access candidates' online messages, voters' attitudes towards candidates' social media activity, the extent to which candidates mobilize offline political activity (including election violence) through digital networks, how commonly and effectively politicians spread disinformation using online platforms, and voters' perceptions of the security and stability of political cyberspace in their context. The research team is developing training in the form of webinar series for graduate students in political science, public policy, and cybersecurity to encourage multi-disciplinary research using the data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.