In 2016, an Instagram account called @army_of_jesus_ posted an image of the son of God, imploring viewers to "like if you believe" or "keep scrolling if you don't". It received almost 88,000 likes.

The account, as revealed later by security researchers, was run by Russian internet trolls.

While much attention has been paid to attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election on Facebook and Twitter, the role of the image-based social media platform has been largely overlooked.

According to New Knowledge, this was the most-Liked Instagram content created by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) prior to Election 2016. ( Supplied: New Knowledge )

In fact, according to two recent reports, Instagram became the platform of choice for Russia's infamous Internet Research Agency (IRA).

Thanks to accounts like @army_of_jesus_, the IRA garnered higher engagement on Instagram than it did on Facebook across the posts that were studied in one of the reports. For example, troll posts received 183,246,348 likes on Instagram, compared to 37,627,085 on Facebook (although some of that could be fake traffic).

Australia is home to an estimated 9 million active Instagram accounts each month and our own 2019 federal election is approaching. Are we ready for a similar type of memetic warfare?

After the "Facebook election" of 2016, observers fear Australia is still "quite naïve" about the ways social media may be manipulated to mislead and influence the national conversation.

Instagram: hiding in plain sight

IRA activity on Instagram was more significant than its owner, Facebook, disclosed in Congressional hearings, according to researcher Renee DiResta.

She is the director of research at cybersecurity firm New Knowledge, which compiled a report at the request of the US Senate examining Russia's online campaign.

The analysis found the IRA moved much of its activity to Instagram in 2017 — potentially due to increased scrutiny on Facebook and Twitter.

The IRA used Instagram's inbuilt tools to create accounts and post images aimed at growing and exploiting audiences with particular social interests and identities, such as black-American rights.

New Knowledge found the organisation posted content attempting to generate "in-group approval and camaraderie". Only occasionally was a post explicitly anti-Hilary Clinton or related to the election.

"There was a Southern pride group … there was an LGBT Pride group," Ms DiResta said.

"Texas pride. Black pride. They really just kind of hit every segment of American society with a group designed to create that in-group dynamic, that strong community, and then politicise it when necessary."

The IRA even used Instagram to promote external merchandise sites. It's unclear whether this was done to make money or simply to collect personal information as part of the transaction, such as names, email addresses and phone numbers.

The appeal of visuals

Instagram's power as a medium for disinformation is arguably due to its centring of the image. That's where the phenomenon of memes comes in.

A political meme on Instagram, for example, can easily tap into people's emotions by offering inflammatory imagery, false context or an only a half-true story about Centrelink or immigration. And they're low effort compared to creating an authorised political advertisement.

Australia's own 2016 federal vote was dubbed the "Facebook election", and social media accounts such as Innovative and Agile Memes feverishly posted Bill Shorten in communist garb, while the Australian Workers' Union used Scooby Doo to suggest Malcolm Turnbull was Tony Abbott in disguise.

James Meese, communications lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney, said Australia's large online political meme community has typically focused on humorous messaging for political in-crowds.

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In general, they perform an "intensification of existing political community", he said. "We might call that something like 'playing to the base', whether you're a Labor supporter or a Liberal supporter or a Greens supporter."

Yet, as with the IRA's scheme, the identity and intention of political activity is sometimes difficult to identify on social media.

Dr Andrew Hughes, who researches political marketing at ANU's Research School of Management, said it can be easy to follow politically orientated accounts without knowing who runs them.

Instagram has added several tools such as "about this account" to try and combat this.

But Dr Hughes is particularly concerned about the use of social media to falsely generate interest in specific issues. "All of a sudden it goes from being on the periphery of an election campaign to being front and centre," he said.

This is the role of genuine activism, of course, but politically motivated trolling muddies the picture.

Is Australia ready?

Could meddling trolls like the Internet Research Agency target Australia? Dr Meese suggested the risk here is arguably lower, from a geopolitical view, compared to the United States.

Other factors may also protect us: in particular, mandatory voting may mean there is less motivation to use propaganda to suppress voting, which was one message promoted in the US.

But we could always do it to ourselves. As part of a government inquiry into the 2016 Australian election, the National Media Research Council suggested the threat of social media manipulation appears to "currently be more of a domestic threat than one of foreign interference".

Protestors put up life-sized cut-outs of Mark Zuckerberg ahead of a hearing in Washington DC. ( AP: Carolyn Kaster )

In many ways, Australia's electoral rules are unsuited to the internet.

Special regulations govern political advertising close to an election, but blackouts apply to broadcasters and not to print media or online services.

"In a sense, social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook can keep putting out messages leading up to and even on the day of an election," Dr Meese said.

In fact, very few laws govern the interplay between online communication and the electoral process.

The Australian Information Commissioner is investigating Facebook over the loss of user data to political outfit Cambridge Analytica, but there are few limitations on the use of our data by political parties — thanks to their exemption from the Privacy Act.

Of course, it is still impossible to say whether the IRA's machinations on Instagram, or any other platform, handed the presidency to Donald Trump.

But Filippo Menczer, a professor of informatics at Indiana University, said this new reality seemed to have given new life to "astroturfing" — the process of creating an artificial impression that a politician or point of view is popular.

Astroturfing is a longstanding political technique that is prospering in the social media era.

After all, unlike making a television ad, social media is by definition easy to manipulate; it is software anyone can use.

"There is no silver bullet," Professor Menczer said.

"They just used the platforms as they were intended to be used," Ms DiResta said of the IRA.

An Instagram spokesperson said the company was taking steps to prevent election interference, including new ways to authenticate accounts, and would continue developing such tools ahead of Australia's federal election.