More than half of Twitter's ‘Reopen America’ calls from bots, study finds

June 1, 2020

Fear is a familiar political weapon, and it appears to be just as effective as it's always been

In a now-familiar truth, scenario, malicious actors are creating bots to sow discontent and division. That's according to a new study out of Carnegie Mellon, which found that half of all Twitter calls to reopen the country may be from bots.

It adds a new chapter to the misinformation that helped stoke ire during the 2016 elections and led to awareness of the role of social media as arbiter of perceived truth and ultimately political power.

Since January, CMU researchers have collected 200 million tweets touching on the coronavirus. A whopping 82% of the top 50 influential retweeters are bots, the study found, and more than 60% of the top 1,000 retweeters are bots.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/half-of-twitter-reopen-america-calls-may-be-bots-study-finds/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=21976055388045573415207771863736&mid=12859886&cid=717067081