Bots on X worse than ever: analysis of 1M tweets during first primary debate | Hacker News Reader

Bots on X worse than ever: analysis of 1M tweets during first primary debate

theguardian.com

30 pointsggm12 comments

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I suppose his response to advertisers will be "let them sue."

I assume the bots are counted in ad metrics, so at what point does it become fraud?

I believe this is Dr Timothy Graham's Twitter/X account: https://twitter.com/timothyjgraham

So?

To make it easier for everyone here to judge the mental acuity of the expert for themselves.

Wow that guy is obsessed with twitter.

Almost as though he's been studying it. Funny, that.

I thought Twitter wasn't keeping bots data according to what they said when Elon Musk accused them to withholding data? How'd they know it is "worse than ever".

Tens of millions in US do believe Trump won, and that the election was rigged, so 1200 accounts saying that doesn't look that extraordinary

Off-topic: I keep clicking on the X logo trying to close the pop-ups. This X rebrand doesn't feel like an improvement

> “We look at patterns of accounts that are discussing the debate topics, and during the interview as well, that are posting the same or similar content or the same links repeatedly within five seconds of each other,” he says.

> If two accounts did this five times, the researchers took this as a sign that they were automated accounts.

It sounds like they were pretty specific in how they identified the bot accounts.

It’s like the researcher discovered echo chambers…

Out of curiosity, why do you think "tens of millions" of people believe that?

Just finger in the air, based on events and social media comments since 2020 election

Like I could say "tens of millions" of Democrats would still support Biden even if deem mental unfit for office, against Trump

* At leat 30% of the voters, on both sides, of 2020 will not be moved by any new fact

* In recent polls half Republican party still supports Trump. The Trump saga is so beaten up at this point, you would really have to believe Trump to keep it going

* This new indictments help Trump, by giving media coverage. And because distrust between authority/justice and Republicans

* This post analysis PDF also shows that the most liked, and retweeted, tweets are from verified accounts that support Trump views

So between 30% and 50% of 74 million people seems to support Trump's views

But to complete my original point, the bots identified look like budget "news channels", that also parrot those same views. That rightfully, or not, get labeled as "conspiracy theory" and "fake news"

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