Bot or not?
Cybersecurity researchers warn that misinformation campaigns from convincing bots are fueling much of the social media debate about lifting coronavirus lockdowns and reopening the economy.
“We’re seeing up to two times as much bot activity as we’d predicted based on previous natural disasters, crises and elections,” wrote Kathleen Carley, a professor in the School of Computer Science’s Institute for Software Research and director of the Center for Informed Democracy & Social - Cybersecurity
“When we see a whole bunch of tweets at the same time or back to back, it’s like they’re timed,” she added. “We also look for use of the same exact hashtag, or messaging that appears to be copied and pasted from one bot to the next.” These accounts have also amplified conspiracy theories, such as those speculating about the origins of the virus, claims that hospitals are being filled with mannequins instead of actual patients, as well as linking the coronavirus to 5G towers.Related: States reopen after coronavirus lockdowns: More beaches, casinos open ahead of Memorial Day holiday weekend
iframe.twitter-tweet { width: 100% !important; } Fake news travels fast. A 2018 MIT report found that false news stories are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true ones. And it takes true stories about six times as long to reach 1,500 people as it takes for false stories to reach the same number of people.
Unfortunately, the CMU report cannot identify who or what entity is behind such “orchestrated attempts” to influence the online conversation about the pandemic and reopening the economy. “We do know that it looks like it’s a propaganda machine, and it definitely matches the Russian and Chinese playbooks, but it would take a tremendous amount of resources to substantiate that,” said Carley.
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