@article{THESIS,
      recid = {3231},
      author = {Bayoumi, Elisa K},
      title = {Private Matters: The Effect of Data Privacy Laws on State-  Sponsored Foreign Disinformation Campaigns},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2021-08},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {Do data privacy laws impede microtargeted foreign  disinformation campaigns on social media? This thesis  argues that data privacy laws prevent foreign actors from  customizing such campaigns and limit the campaign's overall  effectiveness. I test the effect of data privacy laws on  disinformation campaigns by investigating the effect of the  European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  on Russian-linked actors targeting the United Kingdom (UK)  with disinformation. This paper finds strong evidence that  the implementation of GDPR coincides with a change in how  frequently the Russian accounts spread disinformation  relating to the UK on Twitter despite a confounding news  story. I hypothesize that this decrease in daily tweets  indicates a temporary pause on the disinformation campaign  targeted at British citizens as the data required for the  microtargeting campaign became harder to get. The  contributions of this paper include a thorough review of  the research into strategies for spreading disinformation  targeted at other states. I also emphasize the need for  research into the interruptions into strategies of  spreading disinformation, rather than simply the strategies  themselves. Finally, I lend evidence to the assertion that  the controversial data privacy laws may have security  benefits in minimizing or interrupting the microtargeting  tactic to spread foreign disinformation.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/3231},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.3231},
}