Digital foot soldiers ProTrump bots swarm DeSantis, Haley

News Summary

  • While the identity of those behind the network of fake accounts is unknown, Cyabra’s analysts determined that it was likely created within the U.S.To identify a bot, researchers will look for patterns in an account’s profile, its follower list and the content it posts.
  • Some of the accounts posted their own content, often in reply to real users, while others reposted content from real users, helping to amplify it further.“McConnell...
  • While big tech companies have improved their detection of fake accounts, the network identified by Cyabra shows they remain a potent force in shaping online political discussion.
  • For the sake of democracy I want people to know this is happening.”Bots, as they are commonly called, are fake, automated accounts that became notoriously well-known after Russia employed them in an effort to meddle in the 2016 election.
  • When a human user sees a hashtag or piece of content from a bot and reposts it, they’re doing the network’s job for it, and also sending a signal to Twitter’s algorithms to boost the spread of the content further.
  • They’re really good at getting information in front of people’s eyeballs.”Until recently, most bots were easily identified thanks to their clumsy writing or account names that included nonsensical words or long strings of random numbers.
By DAVID KLEPPER Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) Over the past 11 months, someone created thousands of fake, automated Twitter accounts perhaps hundreds of thousands of them to offer a stream of [+6608 chars]