[2607.23993] On Capturing the Narrative: Social Media Manipulation Wargaming for Cyberliteracy

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arXiv:2607.23993 (cs)

[Submitted on 27 Jul 2026]

Title:On Capturing the Narrative: Social Media Manipulation Wargaming for Cyberliteracy

Authors:Alexandra Vassar, Rahat Masood, Hammond Pearce<br>View a PDF of the paper titled On Capturing the Narrative: Social Media Manipulation Wargaming for Cyberliteracy, by Alexandra Vassar and Rahat Masood and Hammond Pearce

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Abstract:Misinformation is deeply embedded in online discourse, with nearly one in five posts during global events generated by bots that amplify false content. In recent years, the use of Generative AI has further lowered the barrier to producing convincing misinformation, yet most digital literacy education still relies on static checklists and single-player inoculation games built for an earlier media landscape. This paper describes how we addressed this educational gap through Capture the Narrative, a four-week multi-university competition in which student teams build LLM-powered bots to influence a simulated election. We report on our custom social-media platform, the competition environment and design of its 4,000 AI-driven Non-Player Character (NPC) citizens, and what running Capture the Narrative at scale actually involved. In our first iteration, 108 teams from 18 Australian universities produced 7,068,206 player-bot posts, approximately 60% of all platform content. We surveyed 256 students before and 83 after the competition to understand their perceptions of misinformation and the game itself and found that students did not become more confident at spotting bots, contrary to what inoculation theory predicts. Because engagement was rewarded, most teams prioritised high-volume posting over nuanced influence, mirroring real-world platform dynamics. We close with recommendations for educators considering similar interventions, and propose future improvements, such as including a blue-team defensive phase.

Comments:<br>7 pages, 1 figure. Paper is under review

Subjects:

Computers and Society (cs.CY); Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)

Cite as:<br>arXiv:2607.23993 [cs.CY]

(or<br>arXiv:2607.23993v1 [cs.CY] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.23993

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arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history<br>From: Hammond Pearce [view email]<br>[v1]<br>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:40:00 UTC (804 KB)

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