According to reports, a recent study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University researchers has found that “almost half” of the Twitter accounts that are pushing for the “re-opening” of the American economy are actually fake bots.
The study — which was published by Carnegie Mellin University on May 20 — found that ” of the top 50 influential retweeters” pushing for the “reopening” of America, 82% are bots.
Additionally, “of the top 1,000 retweeters,” the study found that 62% of them are bots.In a new study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University researchers, it has been suggested that almost half of those accounts pushing to reopen the economy are actually bots.
In a report published last week, researchers deduced that 62 percent of the 1,000 most influential retweeters on the platform also appeared to be bots. As Business Insider points out, the usual level of bot involvement on social media when it comes to U.S. politics is somewhere between 10 to 20 percent. The possible bots were identified using artificial intelligence processes, which analyzed the frequency of tweets, number of followers, and apparent location. When these accounts tweet more often than usual, or appear in one country one tweet and then another hours later, it’s highly likely the account is a bot. [via Complex]
Carnegie Mellon says that since January, the research group has compiled more than 200 million tweets and included posts from Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube into their study.
“We’re seeing up to two times as much bot activity as we’d predicted based on previous natural disasters, crises and elections,” said Kathleen Carley, the director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems and Center for Informed Democracy & Social – Cybersecurity.
“Conspiracy theories increase polarization in groups. It’s what many misinformation campaigns aim to do,” Carley warned.
Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter @eric_ital for movie and soccer takes or contact him eric@brobible.com
