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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums82% of the most influential pro-Reopening Twitter feeds are bots.
KosRussias 2016 campaign in support of Donald Trump included many different means of inserting false information into the national conversation. It featured ads on radio stations in key cities intended to suppress Black support for Hillary Clinton, faux local news sites filled with fabricated stories supporting Trump, and fake Black Lives Matters sites on Facebook meant to increase the fear of rural white voters. There were targeted ads that leveraged online tools to plant false stories directly into critical districts, and direct intrusion into voter databases that did who knows what. But one key component of the 2016 campaign was a vast army of bot accounts, managed by a team of Russian military hackers. That effort filled Twitter, Facebook, and other sitesand in the process became some of the most influential accounts in social media.
Now it appears that its happened again. A new study shows that when it comes to forcing workers to go back into offices, stores, and factories, almost half the online voices shouting for the reopening of America were, and are, bot accounts. Of the accounts that have tweeted most on this topic, more than half are bots. Of the most influential, almost all are bots. And behind the bots is someone still unknown.
The report comes out of Carnegie Mellon University. Digging through over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus, researchers focused in on the most influential accountsthose most active, most retweeted, and most liked. Out of the top 1,000 accounts, 62% are bots. Perhaps even more amazing: of the 50 most influential accounts on this topic, 82% are bots.
The bots may be numerous, but their message isnt varied. Theyre not being used to pass along accurate news about COVID-19, to encourage social distancing, or to support state government calls for preventive measures. In addition to pushing false cures, like Trumps much-pushed hydroxychloroquine, and spreading general false information about the dangers of COVID-19, theres one point where bots are driving the whole of social media. According to the report, they are dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and reopening America.
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82% of the most influential pro-Reopening Twitter feeds are bots. (Original Post)
byronius
May 2020
OP
It's also almost as if the hostile foreign adversary found a willing party to help.
Hermit-The-Prog
May 2020
#8
Wounded Bear
(60,398 posts)1. Not surprising...people believe what they want to believe...
and retweet it.
It's why I almost never forward facebook posts. The whole 'like and share' phenomenon seems like such a cry for attention.
John Fante
(3,479 posts)2. Western democracies need to cut all formal relations with Russia.
If they're going to fuck with our safety like this, I say let's run their shit economy even further into the ground. That'll learn 'em.
BigmanPigman
(52,138 posts)3. Hear, hear!!!!
The Magistrate
(96,043 posts)4. I Agree, Sir
Cut them off from banks as well as internet, expel all diplomatic personnel, and seize properties traced to oligarchs as repositories for laundered money purchased in furtherance of criminal conspiracy.
2naSalit
(91,757 posts)5. Sounds like a good start, Sir! ...nt
Qutzupalotl
(14,997 posts)7. Rangappa tweet that I was coming to post
Hermit-The-Prog
(36,304 posts)8. It's also almost as if the hostile foreign adversary found a willing party to help.
Republicans are hazardous to your health.