Nearly half of Twitter accounts calling for "reopening America" could be bots: Study

‘Reopening America’ had been a hot topic on Twitter for quite some time. However, according to the latest study by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, nearly half of the Twitter accounts that suggest “reopening America” could be bots.

Since January, CMU researchers have collected over 200 million tweets that discuss coronavirus. As per the study, out of the top 50 influential retweeters, 82 per cent were bots, while 62 per cent of the top 1,000 retweeters were bots. The study has also expanded its focus on Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube mentions of the pandemic.

After analysing the hundreds of millions of tweets by using artificial intelligence and network analysis techniques, the research team identified the accounts that were likely to be bots, based on information like the number of followers, the frequency of tweeting and an account’s mentions network. One of the researchers pointed out that Twitter has witnessed twice as much bot activity as predicted based on previous natural disasters, crises, and elections.

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The researchers also found that several bot accounts tweeting about the coronavirus were created in February, and have been spreading over 100 types of inaccurate pandemic stories, including false medical advice and potential cures. Moreover, several tweets discussing “reopening America” also spread misinformation linking COVID-19 to 5G towers, origins of the virus, and hospitals being filled with mannequins.

The surge in bots can be linked to various reasons, such as the global pandemic, the lockdown allowing everyone more free time and an increase in the number of groups that hire firms that run bot accounts.

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Twitter’s stringent policies

The social media giant has introduced more stringent policies regarding conspiracy theories over Coronavirus in mid-March. In a statement, Twitter noted, “We’re prioritizing the removal of COVID-19 content when it has a call to action that could potentially cause harm. As we’ve said previously, we will not take enforcement action on every Tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about COVID-19.” The company is also said to have suspended “millions” of accounts that engaged in malicious bot behaviour.

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The site claimed to have removed over 2,230 tweets containing “misleading content” between March 18 and April 22, 2020, and added that it has challenged millions of accounts that target manipulative discussions over Coronavirus.

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