NASK warns: watch out for bots before the elections. That's when the biggest threat will appear

• Scams, deepfakes and bots - elections can be used for financial fraud, publication of false candidate recordings and mass dissemination of manipulated content through bot networks - warns Magdalena Wilczyńska from NASK.
• The expert warns that disinformation may appear around the elections themselves. It may be false information about the cancellation of voting, changes in the rules or invalidity of cards, which may discourage citizens from participating in the elections.
• Wilczyńska also draws attention to the lack of response from social media platforms - content violating the election silence or manipulating public opinion can remain online for days, despite reports, which significantly weakens the fight against disinformation.
• We talked to the NASK expert during the 17th European Economic Congress in Katowice.

- A major event that is of significant importance for the entire democratic process will potentially be used by external actors to spread disinformation - says Magdalena Wilczyńska, NASK expert on counteracting disinformation, in an interview with WNP. She emphasizes that she is monitoring disinformation activities related to the elections, but that only the last two weeks of the campaign will be crucial in this respect.

- We are preparing, for example, for the use of new bot networks or the intensification of existing bot networks that will spread specific narratives. We are also preparing potentially for the use of deepfakes - explains the expert.

Elections are a harvest for financial fraudsters. The candidate's image attracts

Wilczyńska argues that today such deceptive images are used primarily in advertisements that lead to financial fraud sites. These include fake investments. - Financial scams are also appearing because elections are approaching - Wilczyńska believes.

As he explains, the image of the candidates is to convince users to click on the message and then leave their data in specially prepared forms by the criminals. These will then be used by the thieves, who will encourage us to transfer money to them.

But the intensification of financial fraud is not the end of the content that will be associated with the presidential elections in Poland. - There will always be narratives about the elections themselves during elections. They will not be very controversial in theory, but they will affect our decision-making process - warns Wilczyńska. Examples? - Information that the elections have been canceled or that their date has been postponed, that you have to vote in a different way than before, or some ballots are invalid - she enumerates.

Such content is intended to cause us not to vote. This is one of the models that aims to undermine the entire democratic process.

Wilczyńska also warns against disinformation aimed at the candidates themselves. - In Slovakia, during the election silence, audio fakes were released to undermine the image of a specific candidate. And this could happen here too - she warns, noting that the most difficult moment is the election silence. At that time, traditional media have limited possibilities to act, unlike, for example, social media channels.

Wilczyńska argues that cooperation between platforms that share political content is important. - When it comes to disinformation content, platforms have very different policies and approach our reports very differently - she says. - We know from last election that platforms managed to not remove violations of election silence, or, for example, they removed it after three days, when it no longer mattered.

As he adds, the content should disappear within several dozen minutes, but sometimes it takes platforms up to several days to respond.

A network of bots will pretend that they are having a real discussion

Wilczyńska also admits that a big challenge in the fight against disinformation is distinguishing the real behaviors and views of users from coordinated actions aimed at someone. - Disinformation is the intentional spread of false or manipulated content - she explains. And she warns:

Let's be careful with all sensational and highly emotional content. If there are 50 exclamation marks in the message, everything is in red, it is worth taking a deep breath and checking it in a second source. Check in traditional media, not just on social media platforms.

- Let's be careful of incredible deepfakes, this will be very important especially the day before the elections. If sensational information or some recording of a candidate appears, it is worth considering at this point. It is worth looking at it, waiting for official information - says the expert and adds that we should also be careful of bots on social media.

- These are programs that are written to spread some hashtags or specific views - he explains, adding that they can be profiled in such a way as to simulate a heated discussion in the comments. - The entire conversation can be prepared so that we do not verify this information ourselves. Unfortunately, bots are looking better and better because they are created using AI and are profiled in such a way as to resemble users - he argues.