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 latest study by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, nearly half of Twitter accounts that suggest “reopening America” could be bots.

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

After analysing  hundreds of millions of tweets by using artificial intelligence and network analysis techniques,  research team identified  accounts that were likely to be bots, based on information like number of followers, frequency of tweeting and an account’s mentions network. One of 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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researchers also found that several bot accounts tweeting about 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 virus, and hospitals being filled with mannequins.

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

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Twitter’s stringent policies

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

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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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