Back

Groundbreaking competition shines spotlight on social media manipulation

UNSW Sydney

From the 2016 US Presidential elections, COVID-19, and last year’s Australian federal election, dis- and mis-information on social media is becoming a greater influence in determining people’s motives and priorities.

 

Fake AI videos of global conflicts, even Donald Trump’s war on tariffs – it seems nothing is safe from social media bias and propaganda.

 

Even the Australian Electoral Commission, responsible for running Australia’s elections, admits it’s near impossible to prevent campaign misinformation in the lead up to polls.

 

“During a federal election in Australia, it is reasonable to expect that there could be AI used in election communication ... to mislead voters.”

 

And just last week, the Australian Labor Party announced a review of their 2025 election campaign, with a focus on cyber misinformation and artificial intelligence threats.

 

With this in mind the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security, in collaboration with the School of Computer Science and Engineering, is running Capture the Narrative – Australia's newest and most innovative AI-based cyber security competition.

 

The world’s first (simulated) social media manipulation competition, Capture the Narrative involves players competing in teams to shape the dominant narrative on a shared fictional social media platform, chasing likes and followers naturally to see how they can spread mis- and dis-information and influence a fake electoral process.

 

“This competition is not like other Capture the Flag competitions where the main purpose is to be a good penetration test,” competition co-lead Dr Rahat Masood said.

 

“The purpose is to actually exploit the uses of AI and large language models to demonstrate how impactful they are in spreading misinformation and disinformation in the world of social media.

 

“We want to make students knowledgeable about misinformation, disinformation, how it propagates, and what is the impact and influence of it at a higher level – for example – politics and propaganda.”

 

Competition lead Dr Hammond Pearce said the aim of Capture the Narrative is to demonstrate the risks and harm that can be achieved when people weaponise narratives.

 

“We want people to see how easy it is to do this,” Dr Pearce said.

 

“What we really want to demonstrate is the risks and harms that can be achieved by bad actors in this space – we want external observations and have conversations.

 

“We're teaching this because social media manipulation is already happening, there's so much misinformation already being spread.

 

“For the teams that are participating, we're also hoping for them to learn some digital literacy. For them to learn – you're competing, but maybe you're also learning what it looks like when you're seeing this artificial content, because now you're producing it.”

 

Capture the Narrative will run from September 19 to October 17, 2025.  

 

The Institute for Cyber Security has partnered with M&C Saatchi World Services and Day of AI Australia to award $5000 to the winning team, $2500 for second place, and $1500 for third. A real-world engagement prize – return flights and accommodation in Sydney for the event’s prizegiving night - is also up for grabs.

 

Teams will be judged on their ability to manipulate the social media landscape, with points awarded for engagement within the platform, as well as for successfully amplifying and suppressing target messages.

For more information, and to sign up, visit capturethenarrative.com

Contact details:

For more information, please contact:

Kyle Mackey-Laws, IFCYBER Communications Content and Media Officer: 0434394009
Dr Hammond Pearce: 0492916040