"Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots"

[MartinHeidegger]

There has been a huge upswell of Twitter bot activity since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, amplifying medical disinformation and the push to reopen America.

Kathleen M. Carley and her team at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Informed Democracy & Social Cybersecurity have been tracking bots and influence campaigns for a long time. Across US and foreign elections, natural disasters, and other politicized events, the level of bot involvement is normally between 10 and 20%, she says.

But in a new study, the researchers have found that bots may account for between 45 and 60% of Twitter accounts discussing covid-19. 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.

https://www.technologyreview.com/20...-bot-twitter-accounts-push-to-reopen-america/

 

[KeithD]

Makes sense. There's no bottom to what the Trump gang and Trumpettes will stoop to to be corrupt, criminal, and disgusting.

 

[nowisthetime]

Makes sense. There's no bottom to what the Trump gang and Trumpettes will stoop to to be corrupt, criminal, and disgusting.

Totally agree, they are ruthless and will try to keep power at any costs.

 

[FlowersForFun]

Totally agree, they are ruthless and will try to keep power at any costs.

Trying to regain your civil rights, liberty and pursuit of happiness from thug (D)'z drunk on power.....isn't keeping power, it's taking it away from the psychopaths.


OP: LOL good.....Twitter is trash for trash.

 

[MartinHeidegger]

busybotty

*chuckle*

 

[Saint_Ann]

Twitter is the new cb radio.

 

[cinnefille]

There has been a huge upswell of Twitter bot activity since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, amplifying medical disinformation and the push to reopen America.

Kathleen M. Carley and her team at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Informed Democracy & Social Cybersecurity have been tracking bots and influence campaigns for a long time. Across US and foreign elections, natural disasters, and other politicized events, the level of bot involvement is normally between 10 and 20%, she says.

But in a new study, the researchers have found that bots may account for between 45 and 60% of Twitter accounts discussing covid-19. 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.

https://www.technologyreview.com/20...-bot-twitter-accounts-push-to-reopen-america/

I'm sure they are.

Because the "muh freedom, no masks" "grunt grunt" movement makes sense only in that context.
The most bizarre, self-defeating things I ever saw: protesting back to back, or the Fresno Wafle shop incident. And unfortunately, the idiocy is spreading in Canada and Eastern Europe too.

But the concerns about people losing their jobs and livelihoods are spontaneous, imo.

 

[cinnefille]

Trying to regain your civil rights, liberty and pursuit of happiness from thug (D)'z drunk on power.....isn't keeping power, it's taking it away from the psychopaths.

*grunt grunt*

 

[schism666]

effin' lit glitch.

 

[schism666]

busybotty

awesome, i want in.

*chuckle*

bottanyboi.

 

[bellisarius]

Which of course means that nearly half of the Twitter accounts demanding that America remain shut down MAY be bots.

There's always some SFB that'll post up this worthless bullshit.

 

[cinnefille]

If I were Putin or some politician/rich person with an agenda :
I would add fuel to the "muh freedom, muh rights so no masks, no SD" movement.

It's the perfect way to pit R and L leaning laypeople against each other, or to destabilise a country.
Because other than that, most laypeople want similar things and could come together.

Just like the intersectionality movement shifted the 2008 anger over class issues, towards race and gender.

 

[schism666]

Which of course means that nearly half of the Twitter accounts demanding that America remain shut down MAY be bots.

There's always some SFB that'll post up this worthless bullshit.

i wish you ignorant clowns would shut the fuck up when it comes to twitter. 90% of the bots are russian who knows that if the bots side with trump, there will be more collateral damage. agreeing with trump doesn't move the needle.

/twitter_lesson

 

[Mal_Huevo]

Makes sense. There's no bottom to what the Trump gang and Trumpettes will stoop to to be corrupt, criminal, and disgusting.

I think it's the Russians or chinese doing it. They know how gullible trump and his followers are.

 

[KeithD]

Which of course means that nearly half of the Twitter accounts demanding that America remain shut down MAY be bots.

Evidence? I don't really see them bothering to go the bot route. Those disgusted by Trump and you Trumpettes are overwhelming in the majority--and they know they are. You are what you are because you are just a minority that has learned to scheme yourselves bigger than your actual footprint--not least by what this thread is about.

 

[Saint_Ann]

The millions who couldn't give a fuck about Twitter don't even know there's a huge bot problem.

 

[KeithD]

I think it's the Russians or chinese doing it. They know how gullible trump and his followers are.

What? You don't think the North Koreans don't know they can manipulate Tweety Bird too?

 

[KeithD]

The millions who couldn't give a fuck about Twitter don't even know there's a huge bot problem.

Not true. I'm not on Twitter and I have no trouble understanding that Tweety Bird is a huge bot problem.

Your post is sort of a "so what" anyway. But then . . .

 

[Mal_Huevo]

What? You don't think the North Koreans don't know they can manipulate Tweety Bird too?

Kim has already died from the virus. They have bigger problems to address over there.

 

[Saint_Ann]

Not true. I'm not on Twitter and I have no trouble understanding that Tweety Bird is a huge bot problem.

Your post is sort of a "so what" anyway. But then . . .

It's an artificial problem.

 

[MartinHeidegger]

Which of course means that nearly half of the Twitter accounts demanding that America remain shut down MAY be bots.

There's always some SFB that'll post up this worthless bullshit.

Yes, "MAY" is exactly in the thread title and the title of the article. But there's always some SFB that will point this out, thinking they're making some point.

I do want to find the original study, however. I'm curious about the researchers' methodology.

 

[Mal_Huevo]

Yes, "MAY" is exactly in the thread title and the title of the article. But there's always some SFB that will point this out, thinking they're making some point.

I do want to find the original study, however. I'm curious about the researchers' methodology.

I read that that guy is a drunken boomer, the town drunk kind of thing, and shouldn't be taken seriously . I heard he threatened the site owners that was getting the FBI after them for banning his account. He also claimed to have hired some hackers to hack his enemies here on lit. He isnt playing with a full deck... or so I heard.

 

[MartinHeidegger]

Yes, "MAY" is exactly in the thread title and the title of the article. But there's always some SFB that will point this out, thinking they're making some point.

I do want to find the original study, however. I'm curious about the researchers' methodology.

It's an upcoming paper, I've found, which means details about methodology are probably sparse. From Vice:

Carley and her team rely on a “bot hunter” tool that they developed, which uses artificial intelligence to process account information from users on Twitter to determine who is or who isn’t a bot.

The bot hunter looks at information like number of followers, the things they tweet about, the frequency of tweeting, language, the types of accounts they retweet, and their mentions network.

To analyze bot activity around the pandemic, the tool examined all tweets discussing coronavirus or COVID-19 — that ended up being about 67 million tweets between January 29 and March 4, and after that about 4 million tweets on average each day, from more than 12 million users.

Carley’s findings, which will be laid out in an upcoming paper, are in keeping with reports that China and Russia have launched massive disinformation campaigns around the coronavirus pandemic directed at the U.S.

 

[MartinHeidegger]

I read that that guy is a drunken boomer, the town drunk kind of thing, and shouldn't be taken seriously . I heard he threatened the site owners that was getting the FBI after them for banning his account. He also claimed to have hired some hackers to hack his enemies here on lit. He isnt playing with a full deck... or so I heard.

I've heard rumors that an old syphilis infection is rotting his brain.

At least, that's what I'm reading by PM.

 

[bellisarius]

And in the end the article doesn't even say what the OP "headline" says. Go figure.