US Army Funds UA Little Rock Project to Combat Social Media Manipulation

Nitin Agarwal (UA Little Rock)

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Monday announced that information science professor Nitin Agarwal has received $5 million from the U.S. Army Research Office to evaluate and defend against online propaganda and “emerging cognitive threats.”

The project, set to run through 2025, aims to identify research gaps in “deviant socio-technical behaviors,” shape an agenda focused on developing strategies that can counter emerging threats and create tools for near real-time analysis of the threats, the university said in a news release.

The award will provide support for high-speed computational servers that are necessary to process large amounts of data. Funds are also expected to support around 15 student research positions, several postdoctoral research fellowships, and data engineer positions.

Agarwal, founding director of the Collaboration for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS) Research Center at UA Little Rock, said cognitive threats are increasingly flash mob-type events, where groups self-organize and coordinate in cyberspace, then disperse.

He said coordinated cognitive attacks can cause stock market frenzy, violent protests and even cyberattacks on public infrastructure.

“Narratives on social media could be easily weaponized and propagated at frighteningly fast speeds,” Agarwal said in the release. “Such insidious threats that attempt to influence beliefs and behaviors need to be considered as modern weapons of cognitive hijacking. We need to develop scientific approaches to combat these emerging threats in a global context, equip our warfighters with these capabilities, and strengthen community resiliency.”

Agarwal’s research team investigates governments, groups and individuals who use advanced communication tactics to orchestrate sophisticated cognitive attack campaigns through existing and emerging social media platforms, particularly multimedia-rich platforms.

State and non-state actors can use social media platforms to amplify certain narratives and sway public opinion in their favor. Some of Agarwal’s previous research has shown how YouTube’s algorithms can be manipulated to promote positive content about China while crushing negative news about human rights violations in the country.

Agarwal said his research can “serve the needs of our military at strategic, tactical, and operational levels.”

U.S. Sen. John Boozman is among the supporters of the project.

“The evolving nature of social media and the changing tactics our adversaries use to spread misinformation requires us to develop a strategy to respond,” Boozman said in the release. “Dr. Agarwal’s research will help create critical tools to combat bad actors on these platforms.