Automated Twitter accounts, or 'bot' accounts, have been blamed for manipulating and amplifying political topics on the social media platform. But researchers say it is difficult to quantify their influence. (Getty Images)
Wading through the deluge of information and political messaging ahead of an election is hard enough. When you add in fake Twitter accounts that try to manipulate what you see, it gets even more complicated.
But while bots attract a lot of attention and stoke fear, researchers say the actual threat is overblown, and that they're only one part of a bigger system aimed at manipulating opinion online.
"There's a lot of attention on bots as the central cause of our media woes," said Fenwick McKelvey, an assistant professor at Montreal's Concordia University who researches social media platforms. "Bots are, at best, a small part of it."
Twitter bots are automated accounts run by software instead of human beings and programmed to automatically tweet, retweet, like and follow other accounts. They're not always malicious. Some bots are programmed to be helpful, like the account YK Climate Watch, which automatically tweets anomalies in temperature and precipitation in Yellowknife to track the impacts of climate change.
Yesterday in Yellowknife, the temperature was 89 °C warmer than the historic average. warmer/colder/total days : 75/76/213#ClimateChangeRightNow#ClimateAction
The bots you've probably heard the most about are ones that are designed to impersonate people in order to boost certain tweets, accounts or topics. These bots certainly exist, but they may not be as powerful as they sound.
"I don't think we should dismiss it, but I think it's a little bit overblown," said John Gray, the CEO and co-founder of Mentionmapp Analytics, a social media data company.
Gray has researched bot activity on Twitter during the Alberta and Ontario elections, as with political hashtags like #cdnpoli and #Trudeaumustgo. He said typically 20 to 30 per cent of accounts participating in these Twitter conversations are "suspicious," meaning they show signs of bot-like behaviour. One of those signs is tweeting more than 72 times per day on average, seven days a week. But conclusively identifying a bot is challenging, even for experts, Gray said. And measuring the influence of bots is even more so.
There are behaviours we can observe where bots, or other inauthentic accounts, attempt to manipulate online conversations. Dozens of bots might retweet or reply to a particular tweet, making it appear to be more popular than it really is. Bots or fake accounts might also tweet under certain hashtags in order to try to sway the conversation there into more divisive topics.
But its impossible to measure whether those campaigns have an impact on how real people behave or think, Gray said.
"I don't believe we can actually talk about impact," Gray said. "We don't have the research. We don't have the data, and I don't even know if we have the right questions to ask about the impact."
Bots and #TrudeauMustGo
A recent example of the rising concern over the threat of bots is the debate that followed a trending hashtag: #TrudeauMustGo. In mid-July, the hashtag was trending on Twitter in Canada, and The National Observer reported that some of the accounts tweeting the hashtag showed evidence of automation, such as tweeting at excessively high rates. Some of the accounts identified were later removed by Twitter.
Many Twitter users interpreted the story to mean that bots had caused the hashtag to trend. In response, users who oppose Trudeau began using the hashtag #NotABot, along with #TrudeauMustGo, to challenge the idea that bots played a role in the hashtag's popularity. A spokesperson from Twitter said the accounts removed weren't responsible for making the hashtag trend.
"Our initial investigation has not found evidence of bot activity amplifying the #TrudeauMustGo hashtag," said Michele Austin, head of government and public policy for Twitter Canada. "These were driven by organic, authentic conversation."
Twitter users reacted to a story reporting suspicious accounts had tweeting using the hashtag #TrudeauMustGo, which later trended on Twitter. (Screengrab/Twitter)
Twitter's trending hashtags are determined by an algorithm, which considers not only the number of tweets, but also the period of time over which those tweets are sent, and the number of different users tweeting the hashtag, according to the site.
But the specifics of how a trending topic is determined aren't publicly known, which is part of why it's difficult to measure the influence of bots, McKelvey said.
"I don't know how Twitter makes trends. They have an explanation about it, but there's concerns in general about the transparency," McKelvey said. "It's moments like this where you have a lot of uncertainty, which creates room for these competing interpretations."
Twitter has made efforts to improve transparency, including releasing archives of accounts identified as potential foreign election interference operatives. It also provides access to its API to researchers, and is constantly improving its ability to identify, track, and disable inauthentic accounts that violate its terms of service.
"We have a team dedicated to monitoring inauthentic and spam activity for the Canadian election and it's something that we will be banning if we see it happen," Austin said. "We do take these issues very, very seriously. The public conversation is never more important than during an election."
Neil Gregory WHY would anyone with more than two functioning brain cell trust anything that shows up on Twitter, facebook, and other such media?
Karen King Reply to @Elaine Hancock: ah so you are the uninformed queen then?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Neil Gregory: Methinks The Donald and Mr Prime Minister Trudeau the Younger are well aware the I am no bot and that the documents and links I offer are legit N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Karen King: Methinks I have every right to believe that you all are very uninformed N'esy Pas?
Alex Matheson
It would be good if the CBC did more to weed out the fake accounts on here. Some of the names these in and outers use are ridiculous. Yet they get the same air time as the legit posters.
Alexandre Hilton
Reply to @Alex Matheson: Fake accounts? Do you have any proof to corroborate that claim? Or are 'Fake Accounts' just people you disagree with?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Alex Matheson: I Wholeheartedly Agree Sir
David R. Amos
Reply to @Alexandre Hilton: Methinks you know as well as I what he posted is true N'esy Pas?
Frank Goodwood
When JT loses, it won't be due to Twitter bots. But CBC needs to put it out there in case their daily pro-Liberal propaganda is not successful.
David R. Amos Reply to @Frank Goodwood: I concur
Hamish Lawrence The idea that Trudeau must go is spreading with or without bots
David R. Amos Reply to @Hamish lawrence: YUP
Ron Booth There is NOTHING fake about Trudeau's scandals and false statements.
David R. Amos Reply to @Ron Booth: Oh So True
Rob Preston Anytime now Katie and Gerald,s team of bots will show up attacking Andrew Scheer and calling Trudeau a hero. The Bots on this site are as bad if not worse then on Twitter or Facebook.
David R. Amos Reply to @Rob Preston: I agree
Drake Smith I know not a single person in my circle of friends, family or associates that ever pays attention to anything that goes on in Twitter. The only times we get to here something about Twitter is when President Trump tweets something and the deranged MSM goes nuts repeating it. FYI, 10,000 fake Twitter following costs $29.99 and you can have your followers by the very next day after placing the order. If you do, please don't end up believing that you actually have 10,000 real people who are following your every crap that you tweet
David R. Amos Reply to @Drake smith: Methinks only one Twitter account will do if one sticks to the truth N'esy Pas?
Patricia Deronde Not sure about twitter but I received a text message from the Conservatives yesterday to my phone asking for my support. Are you kidding me? Brazen act. What an annoyance.
David R. Amos Reply to @Patricia deronde: Welcome to the Circus
Rob Burr Pointing out that there are lib posters that post misinformation and disinformation gets you shut down. Come on CBC you can do better?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Rob Burr: Methinks some folks know that I can easily prove that the same holds true for the benefit of all the other political parties as well N'esy Pas?
Christian Jane Y'know, I've never met a Twitter 'bot. That's because I stay off Twitter. Easy. Same with Facebook and all the others. You won't be influenced by on-line guff if you don't pay attention to it.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Christian Jane: Methinks you are influenced in ways that you no doubt would strongly disagree with but at least you must admit that you are offering an opinion about such things N'esy Pas?
Alex Forbes More fake news. Trying to assert that only a robot wants Trudeau out? Come on...
David R. Amos Reply to @Alex Forbes: Good Point
Rich Large Bots have been active on here for months
Rob Halifax
Reply to @Rich Large:
Hmmm, that is exactly what a bot would say.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Rob Halifax: So you say eh?
Gustav Labadie hash tag trudeau must go
Patrick MacNeil
Reply to @Gustav Labadie: on to another four years.
