Nearly half of Twitter accounts discussing coronavirus are likely bots, researchers say
Nearly half of Twitter accounts
discussing coronavirus are likely bots, researchers say
By Kelly Taylor Hayes May
22, 2020 Updated
Misinformation about COVID-19 has
spread far and fast online.
PITTSBURGH - Nearly half of the Twitter
accounts sharing information about the novel coronavirus are likely bots,
according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.
Researchers analyzed more
than 200 million tweets discussing coronavirus or COVID-19 since January. They
found that nearly half were sent by accounts that behave more like a convincing
bot than an actual human.
Of the top 50 influential
retweeters, 82% were likely bots, the research showed. Out of the top 1,000
retweeters, 62% were likely bots.
More than 100 types of
inaccurate COVID-19 stories were identified by researchers, including
misinformation about potential cures and conspiracy theories — such as
hospitals being filled with mannequins or the coronavirus being linked to 5G
towers. Researchers said bots are also dominating conversations about ending
stay-at-home orders and "reopening America."
The team said it was too
early to point to specific entities that may be behind the bots “attempting to
influence online conversation.”
"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," Kathleen Carley, a professor in the School for
Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon, said in a statement.
Carley said she and her
colleagues are seeing up to two times as much bot activity as the team had
predicted, based on previous natural disasters, crises and elections.
The team uses multiple methods to
identify which accounts are real and which are likely bots. An artificial
intelligence tool analyzes account information and looks at things such as the
number of followers, frequency of tweeting and an account's mentions.
"Tweeting more
frequently than is humanly possible or appearing to be in one country and then
another a few hours later is indicative of a bot," Carley said.
"When we see a whole
bunch of tweets at the same time or back to back, it's like they're timed. We
also look for use of the same exact hashtag, or messaging that appears to be
copied and pasted from one bot to the next," Carley added.
The team at Carnegie
Mellon is continuing to monitor tweets and said posts from Facebook, Reddit and
YouTube have been added to their research.
A Twitter blog post this week from Yoel Roth, the head of
site integrity, and Nick Pickles, the global public policy strategy and development
director, calls the word “bot” a “loaded and often misunderstood term.”
“People often refer to
bots when describing everything from automated account activity to individuals
who would prefer to be anonymous for personal or safety reasons, or avoid a photo
because they’ve got strong privacy concerns,” the post states. “The term is
used to mischaracterize accounts with numerical usernames that are
auto-generated when your preference is taken, and more worryingly, as a tool by
those in positions of political power to tarnish the views of people who may
disagree with them or online public opinion that’s not favorable.”
Twitter told NPR it has gotten rid of thousands of tweets with
misleading and potentially harmful information about the coronavirus.
In the blog post, Twitter
adds that not all forms of bots are necessarily violations of Twitter — such as
customer service conversational bots that automatically find information about
orders or travel reservations.
The company said it is
proactively focusing on “platform manipulation,” which includes the malicious
use of automation aimed at undermining and disrupting the public conversation,
such as trying to get something to trend.
For someone who is unsure
about an account’s authenticity, Carnegie Mellon researchers said to closely
examine it for red flags. If the account is sharing links with subtle typos,
many tweets are being posted in rapid succession, or a user name and profile
image doesn’t seem to match up — it may be a bot.
"Even if someone
appears to be from your community, if you don't know them personally, take a
closer look, and always go to authoritative or trusted sources for
information," Carley said. "Just be very vigilant."
This story was reported from Cincinnati.
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