Elections and Social Media: Urgent Action Must Be Taken to Counter Manipulation Distorting Public Opinion

Editorial

16:38 JST, August 4, 2025

Information manipulation is going on around the world through false information posted on social media to direct public opinion and election results in target countries in a way that is advantageous to the poster’s own country.

Japan has traditionally been considered detached from such manipulation partly due to language barriers. However, the situation has changed dramatically with advances in translation technology. Immediate measures must be taken to prevent foreign forces from interfering with public opinion in Japan.

In last year’s presidential election in Romania, an unknown pro-Russian candidate won the most votes. Suspicions arose that Russian interests had manipulated information on social media to make videos of this candidate go viral. As a result, the election result was annulled.

A different candidate won in the reelection in May, which took place amid strengthened social media monitoring by authorities.

Regarding Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, both sides are said to be spreading fake videos that make it appear that crimes are being committed by the other. It seems that both countries are trying to win over public opinion in the international community.

Japan is no longer an exception.

At the end of 2023, then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced about ¥660 billion in aid to Ukraine. Soon after that, the Noto Peninsula Earthquake occurred, and social media sites were soon flooded with posts with comments such as, “The support should be given to the disaster-hit areas instead of Ukraine.”

An investigation led by the Foreign Ministry found out that these posts were likely spread by an individual with Russian ties, using a program called a bot that can automatically post large numbers of messages. The ministry believes that the move was an attempt to stop Japan’s support for Ukraine.

During the campaign period for the recent House of Councillors election, there were reports of posts going viral in an unnatural way, which appeared to have been caused by foreign interests with the intention of stirring up social division. Although the government has not released any information on the content, the lack of details will probably only fuel suspicion. An investigation should be conducted to make the results public.

Information manipulation originating overseas is not always intended to directly influence election results. Some posts are designed to seed doubts among the public that there was election fraud, in order to cause confusion in society.

The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito said they will begin discussions on legislation to prevent foreign forces from interfering in elections, among other matters.

The European Union, which is taking the lead in countering false information, legally requires social media platforms to prevent the spread of false information and imposes fines for violations.

A specialized agency is analyzing the social media algorithms that display information based on users’ preferences to detect any risks of false information spreading.

The government and ruling parties must strengthen monitoring of false information and relevant data by learning from the example of Europe.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 4, 2025)