Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that nearly half of all accounts on Twitter that are tweeting about the coronavirus are likely bots.
Of over 200 million tweets analyzed, researchers found that about 45% of those discussing the coronavirus behaved more like computerized robots than humans.
It is too early to say conclusively which individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts, but researchers said the tweets appeared aimed at sowing division in America.
“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 Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University…”We’re seeing up to two times as much bot activity as we’d predicted based on previous natural disasters, crises and elections,” Carley said.
Researchers identified over 100 false narratives about COVID-19 that were spread on Twitter by bot accounts, including conspiracy theories of hospitals being filled with mannequins instead of patients, and the connection of 5G wireless towers spreading coronavirus.
A Twitter spokesperson declined comment, but the company says it has removed thousands of tweets that contain misleading or harmful information about the coronavirus, and that its automated systems “challenged” more than 1.5 million accounts that were focusing on discussions about COVID-19 with malicious behavior.
Some reports have implicated Russian actors in the spread of misinformation against the West to worsen the impact of the coronavirus to create panic and distrust.
See NPR for more.