Previous research has described how highly personalised paid advertising on social media platforms can be used to influence voter preferences and undermine the integrity of elections. However, less work has examined how search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are used to target audiences with disinformation or political propaganda. This paper looks at 29 junk news domains and their SEO keyword strategies between January 2016 and March 2019. I find that SEO — rather than paid advertising — is the most important strategy for generating discoverability via Google Search. Following public concern over the spread of disinformation online, Google’s algorithmic changes had a significant impact on junk news discoverability. The findings of this research have implications for policymaking, as regulators think through legal remedies to combat the spread of disinformation online.

中文翻译：

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信息优化：游戏搜索引擎算法可放大垃圾新闻

先前的研究已经描述了如何在社交媒体平台上使用高度个性化的付费广告来影响选民的偏好并破坏选举的完整性。但是，研究较少的工作是研究如何使用搜索引擎优化（SEO）策略以虚假信息或政治宣传来锁定目标受众。本文研究了2016年1月至2019年3月之间的29个垃圾新闻域及其SEO关键字策略。我发现SEO（而非付费广告）是通过Google搜索产生可发现性的最重要策略。在公众关注在线虚假信息的传播之后，Google的算法更改对垃圾邮件的可发现性产生了重大影响。这项研究的发现对政策制定有影响，