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Related: About this forumSuspected Network Of 13,000 Twitter Bots Pumped Out Pro-Brexit Messages In Run-Up To EU Vote
Researchers have uncovered new evidence of networks of thousands of suspect Twitter bots working to influence the Brexit debate in the run-up to the EU referendum.
The findings, from researchers at City, University of London, include a network of more than 13,000 suspected bots that tweeted predominantly pro-Brexit messages before being deleted or removed from Twitter in the weeks following the vote.
The research which is published in the peer-reviewed Social Science Computer Review journal and was shared exclusively with BuzzFeed News suggests the suspected bot accounts were eight times more likely to tweet pro-leave than pro-remain content.
"This is research that corroborates what Facebook and others say: that there are bots that serve to falsely amplify certain messages," co-author Dan Mercea told BuzzFeed News.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/a-suspected-network-of-13000-twitter-bots-pumped-out-pro
The findings, from researchers at City, University of London, include a network of more than 13,000 suspected bots that tweeted predominantly pro-Brexit messages before being deleted or removed from Twitter in the weeks following the vote.
The research which is published in the peer-reviewed Social Science Computer Review journal and was shared exclusively with BuzzFeed News suggests the suspected bot accounts were eight times more likely to tweet pro-leave than pro-remain content.
"This is research that corroborates what Facebook and others say: that there are bots that serve to falsely amplify certain messages," co-author Dan Mercea told BuzzFeed News.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/a-suspected-network-of-13000-twitter-bots-pumped-out-pro
How decisive this might have been is open to debate - and I'm not convinced that we who generally spend substantial amounts of time online don't overestimate the influence of memes compared to the chit-chat down the pub and the deluge of misinformation in the more widely available print and broadcast media - but it's another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that shows how we got where we are, and in a vote that was too close to call, any influence is potentially decisive.
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Suspected Network Of 13,000 Twitter Bots Pumped Out Pro-Brexit Messages In Run-Up To EU Vote (Original Post)
Denzil_DC
Oct 2017
OP
Committing Brexit may yet prove the stupidest, most self-destructive election result of 2016.
Pope George Ringo II
Oct 2017
#1
Pope George Ringo II
(1,896 posts)1. Committing Brexit may yet prove the stupidest, most self-destructive election result of 2016.
Sorry, America, but it's true. Just like with the North American champion for that title, I don't think one or two explanations suffice and we need to look at absolutely everything. I'd look at alien mind control if I really thought it could help sort out how things went so abysmally wrong. I'm absolutely with you about the jigsaw puzzle and more than ready to believe bot farms had a hand in that disaster.
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)2. Was one of the Twitter bots called Donald Trump?