Just a heads up: Nearly Half of Twitter Accounts Pushing To Reopen America May Be Bots

[ancianita]

According to a new study from Carnegie Mellon University, researchers have found that bots may account for between 45 and 60% of Twitter accounts discussing covid-19. The normal level of bot involvement for U.S. and foreign elections, natural disasters, and other politicized events is usually between 10 and 20%. MIT Technology Review reports:

Many of those accounts were created in February and have since been spreading and amplifying misinformation, including false medical advice, conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus, and pushes to end stay-at-home orders and reopen America. They follow well-worn patterns of coordinated influence campaigns, and their strategy is already working: since the beginning of the crisis, the researchers have observed a greater polarization in Twitter discourse around the topic.

A number of factors could account for this surge. The global nature of the pandemic means a larger swath of actors are motivated to capitalize on the crisis as a way to meet their political agendas. Disinformation is also now more coordinated in general, with more firms available for hire to create such influence campaigns. But it's not just the volume of accounts that worries [Kathleen M. Carley, the director of the University's Center for Informed Democracy & Social Cybersecurity]. Their patterns of behavior have grown more sophisticated, too. Bots are now often more deeply networked with other accounts, making it easier for them to disseminate their messages widely. They also engage in more strategies to target at-risk groups like immigrants and minorities and help real accounts engaged in hate speech to form online groups.

"Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to this problem," the report concludes. "Banning or removing accounts won't work, as more can be spun up for every one that is deleted. Banning accounts that spread inaccurate facts also won't solve anything"

"Carley says researchers, corporations, and the government need to coordinate better to come up with effective policies and practices for tamping this down."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/21/2147232/nearly-half-of-twitter-accounts-pushing-to-reopen-america-may-be-bots

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Russians and Moscow Mitch's machine. They want us dead and if we dont die they

want us working so their stock market can thrive.

[ancianita]

2. Thanks. Well said.

It's a good thing that some credible university put it in numbers, so that 45 can't just lie on the campaign trail.

AI is running all kinds of fascist messaging these days. Twitter's owner, Jack Dorsey, has checked out on all that.

[FM123]

3. Yep!

"When we see a whole bunch of tweets at the same time or back to back, it's like they're timed," Carley said. "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."

This is the same pervasive pattern they use with spreading crazy lies about Biden and Obama!

[LizBeth]

4. Since over 70% thinks reopening is going too soon and do not trust the information, are going to

continue to isolate, I am not surprised.

[ancianita]

5. Good point. And a good indicator, isn't it, that this bot swarming isn't working.

[LizBeth]

6. People are thinking about their loss of life or loved ones. Kinda a big one for those not stupid.

[Hav]

7. I guess one shouldn't just look at Russia

There are certainly financial and political interests from within the US as well to push this narrative and manipulate people.

[ancianita]

8. Definitely. The U.S.has the usual bot services, AND the usual suspects who pay for foreign proxies.

Only state levels can find the IP sources of these insurgents. It's doubtful that platform hosts have that kind of money and manpower.

This doesn't have to be a cyber game, though. It doesn't have to be at the expense of good democratic processes. It would be fair for this government to require that during a general election year, platform hosts could update their terms of service to require a human face with contact info on every new account. That's doing good business by doing a good patriotic turn for the human end users of the nation.

[Chainfire]

9. Everything you see, hear or read

on the world wide web should be subject to the sniff test. If it smells like bullshit, it probably is.

[ancianita]

10. Indeed.