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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsResearchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots
NPR:
Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday.
Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans.
It is too early to say conclusively which individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts, but researchers said the tweets appeared aimed at sowing division in America.
"We do know that it looks like it's a propaganda machine, and it definitely matches the Russian and Chinese playbooks, but it would take a tremendous amount of resources to substantiate that," said Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who is conducting a study into bot-generated coronavirus activity on Twitter that has yet to be published.
Researchers identified more than 100 false narratives about COVID-19 that are proliferating on Twitter by accounts controlled by bots.
Among the misinformation disseminated by bot accounts: tweeted conspiracy theories about hospitals being filled with mannequins or tweets that connected the spread of the coronavirus to 5G wireless towers, a notion that is patently untrue.
Such bogus ideas on the Internet have caused real-world harm. In England, dozens of wireless towers have been set on fire in acts officials believe have been fueled by false conspiracy theories linking the rollout of 5G technology to the coronavirus.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)Twitter is slow to respond. So I report and Block. The other night full blown hardcore porn was running on Twitter. Reporting and blocking got and immediate response.
BotSentinel.com putsout daily reports
Indykatie
(3,695 posts)The Magistrate
(95,243 posts)If researchers can detect them, the same ability must reside with the proprietors. In fact, it is hard to see any benefit the proprietors might gain from tolerating the things. If it is simply that inflating figures lets them charge advertisers more, since none of these machine accounts represents the slightest possibility of a sale, the advertisers would be willing to pay the same as they are now to reach the same cohort of real customers they really are reaching.
Girard442
(6,066 posts)They are trying to hurt us.
Squinch
(50,916 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,774 posts). . .never have and never will.
I don't swim in dirty water.
#newrostrong
Squinch
(50,916 posts)Squinch
(50,916 posts)aren't they?