Troll Factory is an educational game that demonstrates how misinformation and emotional manipulation are used in social media, highlighting the importance of media literacy in understanding and navigating digital information.
It’s your first week at the new job at Troll Factory. Your task is to grow your influence on social media — by whatever means necessary. How many people can you reel in?
Troll Factory shows you first-hand how information operations work on social media. The goal of the game is to illustrate how fake news, emotive content and bot armies are utilized to affect moods, opinions and decision-making.
Troll Factory was developed by a team of experts at Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. The team creates new storytelling methods that combine journalistic practices with digital experiences.
The game uses examples of authentic social media content. The theme of the game was chosen based on background research. Data shows that anti-immigration material is circulating widely in Europe, North America and Asia. Continuing information operations around immigration using fake news, internet memes and the polarization of public discourse are systematic and organized.
Yle does not condone discrimination or racism. The game may contain content that is not suitable for sensitive viewers.