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Toxic narratives are different. They are more than just negative feedback; these are carefully crafted stories designed to manipulate public perception and erode trust in your brand. 

Malicious actors exploit existing controversies or create artificial ones, using a mix of half-truths and outright fabrications to seem credible, and then weaponize them against you when the right moment comes. 

What makes these narratives particularly dangerous is their ability to spread rapidly across social media platforms, often boosted by coordinated networks of fake accounts that artificially inflate their reach and perceived legitimacy.

The Anatomy of a Toxic Narrative

Toxic narratives can sometimes start with a grain of truth – a misinterpreted statement, or even a simple customer service issue can provide the foundation that bad actors need. 

They then build layers of false information around this kernel of truth, making their stories seem more believable by blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

Take the recent case of Burger King – what began as isolated complaints about prices and taste quickly transformed into a viral boycott campaign, with fake profiles amplifying the backlash. 

The hashtag #BoycottBurgerKing gained such momentum that, within a single month, negative posts reached over 75 million views, with inauthentic accounts driving 44 million of these, creating the impression of widespread opposition.

This demonstrates how a legitimate issue that could be easily managed can quickly turn into something far more harmful, as threat actors seize the opportunity to spread falsehoods, shifting public perception.

Why False Stories Stick

By now, most of us are aware that the way social media is designed makes it a perfect breeding ground for the creation of fake narratives – for a couple of reasons.

When multiple accounts share similar negative messages about a brand, it creates the illusion of widespread concern, which in turn makes real users more likely to accept and share these stories without questioning their validity.

Each share and retweet adds credibility to the narrative, creating a feedback loop that’s difficult to break. By the time your brand notices what’s happening, the false narrative has often already taken on a life of its own.

Even typically skeptical individuals might find themselves sharing false information simply because they’ve been consistently exposed to it through their social media feeds.

How AI Contributes to the Problem

Artificial intelligence has become a powerful weapon in the arsenal of malicious actors. It allows them to generate convincing fake profile pictures, write realistic-looking posts, and create entire networks of bot accounts in a matter of minutes.

These AI-powered fake accounts don’t just post automated messages – they create content that’s sophisticated enough to engage meaningfully with real users.

Social media platforms are now flooded with AI-generated content that’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from authentic posts. These tools can analyze trending topics and conversations in real-time, allowing bad actors to craft messages that perfectly align with current sentiments and concerns. 

The result is a more sophisticated form of manipulation that exploits social media algorithms and human psychology simultaneously.

The tools can even mimic specific writing styles and tones, making it possible for fake accounts to pose convincingly as individuals from other countries or cultures.

How Cyabra Can Protect Your Brand

Being aware of the threat posed by toxic narratives is one thing, but having the right toxic narrative detection tools to combat them is another. This is where Cyabra’s advanced AI fake narrative detection platform comes into play.

Cyabra’s platform can monitor social media conversations across all major platforms in real time. It immediately flags suspicious patterns in engagement metrics, helping brands spot coordinated attacks before they can gain significant traction.

By analyzing millions of profiles and their behaviors, Cyabra’s technology can identify networks of fake accounts and bot activity with incredible precision. 

Cyabra’s AI examines factors such as posting patterns, profile characteristics, and content authenticity to determine which accounts are part of coordinated disinformation campaigns.

When a toxic narrative begins to emerge, your brand will gain detailed insights into its origin and spread, including how the story evolves, which accounts are amplifying it, and, most importantly, what percentage of the engagement is coming from authentic versus inauthentic users.

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Together, Cyabra and Meltwater will enable customers with a powerful solution to protect brand reputation from online disinformation attacks, manage crises effectively, and enhance the quality of insights on genuine consumer sentiment. This holistic framework complements Meltwater’s existing social intelligence solutions and allows for a deeper understanding of dis- and misinformation amplified by malicious actors through fake accounts. Through this partnership, joint customers of Meltwater and Cyabra will receive real-time alerts about emerging threats in order to improve decision-making and strategic planning. 

Fake accounts and misinformation significantly impact brand reputation. Approximately 25% of social media conversations about global brands are influenced by fake accounts, and false information spreads 70% faster than the truth. Cyabra’s and Meltwater’s joint solution enables brands to combat these threats proactively. By providing real-time insights, they help brands identify, track, and monitor harmful disinformation campaigns to protect brand integrity.

“Reputation is one of the most valuable assets for a brand, and many of today’s top brands face online threats, harmful narratives, and mis- and disinformation attacks. Cyabra’s leading technology gives teams advanced tools to be able to detect, manage, and counter harmful narratives in real-time and protect brand reputation, and we’re proud they have chosen to partner with Meltwater to advance this mission,” said Doug Balut, SVP of Global Alliances and Partnerships, Meltwater.

Malicious actors, utilizing bot-network-led orchestrated campaigns, exploit social media to damage brand reputation and consumer trust. Using an advanced AI-powered platform, Cyabra sifts through billions of conversations across social media and other digital platforms to detect fake accounts and false narratives. Cyabra provides organizations with clear insights into the spread of false information, arming customers with the tools and knowledge to make proactive decisions. Supporting over 100 languages, Cyabra offers a comprehensive understanding of online narratives and public sentiment.

“The rise of brand disinformation has created a critical challenge for businesses worldwide,” said Emmanuel Heymann, SVP of Revenue at Cyabra. “By joining forces with Meltwater, we are extending our capabilities to offer a comprehensive solution to a wider audience. Meltwater’s suite of tools, combined with Cyabra’s advanced technology, empowers businesses to identify better and counter online threats. Together, we provide a powerful solution for safeguarding brand reputation and building consumer trust in the digital age.”

By joining forces, Meltwater gains access to a broad range of programs, including access to innovative technologies and exclusive co-marketing opportunities to amplify its brand and accelerate revenue growth. Cyabra gains a crucial ally in the fight against disinformation online, and will be able to support more companies in navigating complex digital threats and fostering resilience. 

This collaboration marks a significant advancement in the fight against online disinformation, giving brands actionable insights to protect their reputation and build consumer trust in an era of increasing mis- and disinformation.

If you’re interested in learning more about Cyabra’s advanced disinformation detection tools, contact us. 

About Meltwater

Meltwater empowers companies with a suite of solutions that spans media, social, and consumer intelligence. By analyzing 1 billion pieces of content each day and transforming them into vital insights, Meltwater unlocks the competitive edge to drive results. With 27,000 global customers, 50 offices across six continents, and 2,300 employees, Meltwater is the industry partner of choice for global brands making an impact. 

Together, Cyabra and Meltwater offer a comprehensive solution to combat the growing challenge of online disinformation.

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Disinformation is one of the biggest problems society is facing today. Even though it’s not a new phenomenon, having appeared throughout human history, it is now more widespread than ever.

This is partly due to the speed at which fake news can spread through the internet, capable of reaching millions of people in just a few minutes, and partly because news and information are often shared impulsively, fueled by emotional responses.

While most of us like to think we’re capable of spotting fake news, studies show that even the most discerning individuals struggle to differentiate between genuine and fabricated content – especially when it’s designed to exploit our cognitive biases.

The victims of disinformation come in all forms – from individuals to companies and public institutions – making this phenomenon a modern contagion, spreading rapidly and affecting every aspect of society.

The Ever Growing Problem

What started as simple false narratives shared through social media has evolved into sophisticated campaigns that combine AI-generated content, deepfakes, and coordinated bot networks to maximize their impact.

Recent events surrounding the US presidential elections paint a concerning picture of just how sophisticated these operations have become. 

In debate-related conversations on X, fake accounts spreading disinformation managed to generate over 30,000 engagements and reach an estimated 57 million potential views – all while appearing completely authentic to the average user.

Many of these accounts were created mere months before the event, strategically positioned to manipulate public discourse when it mattered most.

This level of coordination and sophistication isn’t limited to political discourse – it’s becoming increasingly common in attacks against brands and businesses, where malicious actors employ the same tactics to spread false narratives.

And when disinformation can circle the globe before truth can catch up, the damage to both public and private entities can be swift and lasting.

When Disinformation Hits Your Brand

For companies and brands, disinformation poses a unique threat that can strike without warning. 

Unlike traditional PR crises, disinformation campaigns may arise from malicious actors creating false narratives or from amplifying existing issues, pushing them far beyond their original scope.

What makes these attacks particularly dangerous is their ability to blend in with genuine customer concerns. By the time a company identifies the source of the disinformation, the false narrative may have already gained enough traction to trigger boycotts, impact stock prices, or severely damage consumer trust.

This isn’t just theoretical – Cyabra has analyzed numerous cases where coordinated disinformation campaigns have caused real financial damage to companies. 

Loblaws’ recent crisis demonstrates this perfectly. What started as legitimate consumer concerns about the cost of living and “greedflation” quickly escalated when fake accounts began amplifying the #BoycottLoblaws hashtag. 

The situation spiraled as fake profiles, making up 18% of the conversation, pushed to radicalize the protest – even promoting a “Steal from Loblaws Day” that encouraged shoplifting across Canadian cities.

Why Minutes Matter

Time is the most critical factor when dealing with disinformation campaigns. The longer a false story circulates on social media, the more damage it can inflict on your brand’s reputation – and the harder it becomes to contain.

People are quick to react to information they encounter on social media, and the impulse to share and act immediately often outweighs the inclination to check if the story is actually true or if the poster is a real account or a fake one aiming to harm a brand.

Even after a false narrative has been thoroughly debunked, the initial negative impression often sticks in people’s minds, leading to a lingering stain on a brand’s reputation that can be difficult – if not impossible – to fully restore.

Cyabra’s Fight to Expose Fake Profiles

Cyabra’s platform employs sophisticated AI technology that can protect your brand from the harmful effects of targeted disinformation campaigns by detecting toxic narratives and identifying fake profiles infiltrating discussions, uncovering coordinated attacks and emerging crises, and helping you maintain credibility and trust while unlocking authentic customer insights. 

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Here’s a run-down of disinformation and conspiracy theories uncovered by Cyabra in the final week leading up to the elections:

• In the wake of hurricanes Milton and Helene, disinformation regarding FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) spread online, and was used to criticize Biden’s and Harris’s government. 
• Cyabra detected that 1 out of 4 profiles criticizing FEMA were fake. 
• Fake GenAI images were spread widely by fake profiles, including a trending photo depicting devastating floods at Disney World that never happened.
• Cyabra also found that 26% of profiles commenting on Trump’s posts criticizing Harris were fake, with many expressing negative sentiments towards Harris.
• Further analysis identified a large involvement of Russian disinformation agencies in the spread of disinformation, amplifying confusion and fear around the crisis. 
• Misinformation: false claims about FEMA diverting funds to aid migrants reached 600 million potential views and generated 400,000 engagements, amplifying the misleading content. 
• Other narratives amplified were conspiracy theories about weather manipulation caused by the government, false claims about victims receiving only $750 in aid, and allegations that officials were preventing volunteers from entering disaster zones.

Read Cyabra’s full analysis on AP News

AI-generated fake images of flooded Disney World. Source: Institute for Strategic Dialogue

What Else Stirs the Election Disinformation Soup?

• Iran steps up influence campaign aimed at US voters with fake news sites (CNN)
  Iranian operatives have ramped up their attempts to influence and monitor the US presidential election by creating fake news outlets targeting liberal and conservative voters and by trying to hack an unnamed presidential campaign, Microsoft said in research published late Thursday.
• 4 ways AI can be used and abused in the 2024 election, from deepfakes to foreign interference (The Conversation)
  A September 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that well over half of Americans worry that artificial intelligence – or AI, computer technology mimicking the processes and products of human intelligence – will be used to generate and spread false and misleading information in the campaign.
• Election conspiracy theories fueled a push to hand-count votes, but it’s risky and slow (AP News)
  Four years of Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen 2020 election have kindled growing suspicion of voting machines among conspiracy theorists. One of their solutions is to replace the tabulators that count every vote with people who will do that by hand.
• A culture of conspiracy haunts Arizona’s elections (The Economist)
  America’s biggest swing county ramps up security before the vote
• AI deepfakes, voting misinformation, fake fundraisers and other 2024 election scams ramp up (ABC Chicago)
  Scammers are targeting voters across the country, from AI deepfakes on social media to fraudulent news websites or fake links claiming to register you to vote.
• 3 ways you can push back against election misinformation (The Hill)
  In 2024, misinformation is still all around us, from deepfakes to hateful anti-immigrant fiction. Based on casual observation, the problem appears worse than ever; research over the next few years will give us a better idea if that’s true or merely a side effect from exposure over such a long period of time. 

Defending Election Discourse is More Crucial Than Ever

Democracies and government organizations must be aware of the growing impact fake profiles have on our society and on our votes. 

Learn more about Cyabra’s OSINT capabilities in monitoring elections discourse online and identifying fake campaigns and bot networks. 

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Reputation is the cornerstone of every brand. It affects everything a company does, as a good reputation can help brands soar, while a bad reputation can make every misstep feel more significant in the eyes of their customers.

With billions of people on social media watching your brand’s every move, a single blunder can be a costly mistake, and a damaged reputation can be incredibly difficult to repair.

While this is true on its own, the added factor in the equation are fake profiles on social media, which can escalate every negative sentiment toward your brand, multiplying the damage significantly.

And with the stakes so high, brands must stay alert; any wrong move can attract lurking threats, ready to take advantage of the situation.

What is Digital Reputation Management? 

Digital reputation management is the practice of shaping how your brand is perceived online by proactively managing the narratives surrounding it. 

It mainly involves monitoring social media conversations and identifying malicious actors trying to insert themselves into genuine discussions about your brand, as even a small percentage of fake profiles can completely shift the public perception of your brand. 

These profiles typically won’t attack when things are going well; they lie in wait, ignoring your successes, and strike when your brand is already in trouble (often during a PR crisis), launching a disinformation attack that distorts the narrative and erodes trust in your company.

The long-term effects of a tarnished reputation extend beyond short-term financial losses. Recovering from a well-executed disinformation campaign can take years, and for some companies, it may never happen.

Why Brands Can’t Ignore Disinformation

Gartner projects that by 2028, the financial burden of combating malinformation will exceed $500 billion, significantly impacting enterprise budgets.

Disinformation is a unique threat to brands because, unlike other threats such as cyberattacks or negative reviews, it spreads rapidly and uncontrollably. Once it gains traction on social media, it can fuel negative conversations that can linger long after the initial attack​.

This is partly due to how social media algorithms are designed to prioritize viral content, regardless of its authenticity. Since they can’t differentiate between genuine and fake interactions, they often push false narratives to the top of people’s feeds, making disinformation even more widespread.

Each share or like gives it more credibility in the eyes of unsuspecting users, who, even with good intentions, inadvertently contribute to the problem by engaging with the misleading content. 

Since all of this happens so quickly, brands don’t have enough time to respond or defend themselves, leaving them stuck in a game of catch-up with malicious actors.

How Your Brand Can Tackle This Issue

With this being such a common and prevailing problem, safeguarding your brand is imperative.

Cyabra’s platform not only detects disinformation but also identifies and maps its spread in real time across all social media platforms using advanced AI and machine learning algorithms, helping you preserve your brand’s reputation.

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Keeping track of the public’s sentiment can be extremely valuable, as it allows organizations to look for new ideas, identify trends, and find which products resonate with their core audience.

But what do you do when fake profiles infiltrate social media discussions, smearing your public image and damaging a reputation that has taken years to build?

In the past few years, numerous companies have experienced PR crises that were either started by fake profiles or had fake accounts latch onto them, effectively turning what might’ve been a minor issue into a social media uproar, begging the question: who can shield your business from their negative influence, and how?

When Fake Profiles Fuel a Crisis

Fake profiles are always on the lookout, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Sensing your brand’s heightened vulnerability during a PR crisis, they coordinate and launch a full-blown attack precisely when it will inflict the most damage, impacting your bottom line both in the short term and long term.

The PR crisis could come from anything – an action your company took or something it’s perceived to support – to fake profiles, the details don’t matter; they’re just waiting for the right moment to wreak havoc.

As your brand’s PR, and social media teams scramble to manage the crisis, distinguishing between genuine concerns and coordinated fake attacks becomes increasingly difficult, which makes tackling this problem all the more challenging. 

Meanwhile, social media algorithms boost crisis-related content to the top of users’ feeds, mistaking the engagement from fake profiles as genuine interest, creating a feedback loop that keeps amplifying the crisis even further.

Adding Insult to Injury

As if managing a PR crisis wasn’t difficult enough, threat actors have developed new tactics, including the use of fake profiles to exploit the situation through hashtag hijacking.

Hashtag hijacking occurs when fake profiles, originally created for unrelated purposes – such as influencing elections or manipulating public opinion on global issues – use hashtags linked to your PR crisis to promote their own causes, indirectly amplifying the crisis and drawing more attention to it.

How You Can Protect Your Brand

When a crisis emerges, every second counts – the faster you can react to fake profiles, the better you can manage the situation.

Cyabra’s platform leverages advanced machine learning algorithms to detect fake profiles, identify bot networks, and map the spread of disinformation in real-time.

By using Cyabra’s platform, you will receive real-time alerts showing exactly who is targeting your brand, how they are doing it, and when, allowing you to respond swiftly and mitigate the impact of coordinated attacks.

Watch the video summary: Who Protects Your Brand From Bots?

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