BOT NETWORKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THEIR INFLUENCE

BOT NETWORKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON YOUR VOTE ANDRAS & MARTON

SIGNIFICANCE MIT Technology Review Future elections may be swayed by intelligent, weaponized chatbots Quartz How social media bots became an influential force in Africa’s elections Bloomberg Scientific American How Twitter Bots Help Fuel Political Feuds Russian-Linked Bots Used U. S. Startups to Meddle in Elections Pew Research Center CBC Bots, trolls and fake news: Social media is a minefield for U. S. midterms Social Media Bots Draw Public’s Attention and Concern Vox Twitter released 9 million tweets from one Russian troll farm. Here’s what we learned. recode How bots amplify hoaxes and propaganda on social media BBC Mexico election: Concerns about election bots, trolls and fakes

NETWORK VISUALIZATION

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT DATA COLLECTION

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT Twitter API + Python Code Keywords: 'berniesanders', 'bernie sanders', 'sande', 'bernie 2016', 'feelthebern', 'bernie', 'sensanders'

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT Dates: February 27 th, 28 th, & March 1 st

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT > 800, 000 tweets ~ 300, 000 accounts

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT DATA PROCESSING

$ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT {"created_at": "Sun Feb 27 23: 19: 25 +0000 2016", "id": 701546797420965888, "id_str":$

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT {"created_at": "Sun Feb 27 23: 19: 25 +0000 2016", "id": 701546797420965888, "id_str": "701546797420965888", "text": "RT @kwingfieldajc: Rubio naming leaders of the 21 st-century conservative movement: Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, himself. Not your father's GOP. ", "source": "u 003 ca href="http: //twitter. com/download/android" rel="nofollow"u 003 e. Twitter for Androidu 003 c/au 003 e", "truncated": false, "in_reply_to_status_id": null, "in_reply_to_status_id_str": null, "in_reply_to_user_id_str": null, "in_reply_to_screen_name": null, "user": {"id": 3927572 774, "id_str": "3927572774", "name": "Nancy Hale", "screen_name": "hale 4 jesus", "location": null, "url": null, "description": "Trump Supporter-Christian. Jesusmy. Savior-Constitutionalist-2 A-USA-No. Sharia. Law-Borders. Stand. With. Israel-Will. NOt. Vote 4 Bush-God. Guns. Texas-MSdegree. Medicine. Happy", "protected": false, "verified": false, "followers_count": 4611, "friends_count": 5073, "listed_count": 178, "favourites_count": 5115, "statuses_count": 79649, "created_at": "Sat Oct 17 18: 31: 44 +0000 2015", "utc_offset": null, "time_zone": null, "geo_enabled": false, "lang": "en", "contributors_enabled": false, "is_translator": false, "profile_background_color": "C 0 DEED", "profile_background_image_url": "http: //abs. twimg. com/images/theme 1/bg. png", "profile_background_image_url_https": "https: //abs. twimg. com/images/theme 1/bg. png", "profile_background_tile": false, "profile_link_color": "0084 B 4", "profile_s idebar_border_color": "C 0 DEED", "profile_sidebar_fill_color": "DDEEF 6", "profile_text_color": "333333", "profile_use_background_image": true, "profile_image_url": "http: //pbs. twimg. com/profile_images/66891378224 5097472/Ok. XW 1 pym_normal. jpg", "profile_image_url_https": "https: //pbs. twimg. com/profile_images/668913782245097472/Ok. XW 1 pym_normal. jpg", "profile_banner_url": "https: //pbs. twimg. com/profile_ban ners/3927572774/1448336932", "default_profile": true, "default_profile_image": false, "following": null, "follow_request_sent": null, "notifications": null}, "geo": null, "coordinates": null, "place": null, "contributors": null, "retw eeted_status": {"created_at": "Sun Feb 27 02: 20: 01 +0000 2016", "id": 701229858479874048, "id_str": "701229858479874048", "text": "Rubio naming leaders of the 21 st-century conservative movement: Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, himself. Not your father's GOP. ", "source": "u 003 ca href="https: //about. twitter. com/products/tweetdeck" rel="nofollow"u 003 e. Tweet. Decku 003 c/au 003 e", "truncated": false, "in_reply_to_status_id": null, "in_reply_to_status_id_str": null, "in_reply_to_user_id_str": null, "in_reply_to_screen_name ": null, "user": {"id": 252805688, "id_str": "252805688", "name": "Kyle Wingfield AJC", "screen_name": "kwingfieldajc", "location": "Atlanta, GA", "url": "http: //kylewingfield. blog. ajc. com/", "description": "Political commentary from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's 30 -something conservative. Join the conversation on my @AJC blog, and find me on Facebook. ", "protected": false, "verified": true, "followers_count": 3916, "friends_count": 688, "listed_count": 170, "favourites_count": 1274, "statuses_count": 10926, "created_at": "Tue Feb 15 23: 24: 04 +0000 2011", "utc_offset": -18000, "time_zone": "Eastern Time (US & Canada)", "geo_enabled": true, "lang": "en", "contributors_enabled": false, "is_translator": false, "profile_background_color": "C 0 DEED", "profile_background_image_url": "http: //abs. twimg. com/images/theme 1 /bg. png", "profile_background_image_url_https": "https: //abs. twimg. com/images/theme 1/bg. png", "profile_background_tile": false, "profile_link_color": "0084 B 4", "profile_sidebar_border_color": "C 0 DEED ", "profile_sidebar_fill_color": "DDEEF 6", "profile_text_color": "333333", "profile_use_background_image": true, "profile_image_url": "http: //pbs. twimg. com/profile_images/499303416544239617/m_PQ 593 M_normal. jpeg", "profile_image_url_https": "https: //pbs. twimg. com/profile_images/499303416544239617/m_PQ 593 M_normal. jpeg", "profile_banner_url": "https: //pbs. twimg. com/profile_banners/252805688/14077845 20", "default_profile": true, "default_profile_image": false, "following": null, "follow_request_sent": null, "notifications": null}, "geo": null, "coordinates": null, "place": null, "contributors": null, "is_quote_status": false, "retweet_co unt": 2, "favorite_count": 5, "entities": {"hashtags": [], "urls": [], "user_mentions": [], "symbols": []}, "favorited": false, "retweeted": false, "filter_level": "low", "lang": "en"}, "is_quote_status": false, "retweet_count": 0, "favorite_cou nt": 0, "entities": {"hashtags": [], "urls": [], "user_mentions": [{"screen_name": "kwingfieldajc", "name": "Kyle Wingfield AJC", "id": 252805688, "id_str": "252805688", "indices": [3, 17]}], "symbols": []}, "favorited": false, "retweeted": false, "filter_level": "low", "lang": "en", "timestamp_ms": "1456096765271"} From: John_Fillips User ID: 701546797420965888 Text: RT @kwingfieldajc: Rubio naming leaders of the 21 st-century conservative movement: Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, himself. Not your father's GOP Retweet: YES Reply: NO Retweeted from: kwingfieldajc Python Code to clear up data Care about connections

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT Retweeted User ID User Name Replied to User ID Replied to User Name Tweet None 292777349 'pzf' 'RT @pzf: Hillary just retweeted Bernie. https: //t. co/V 3 L 6 k. Hz 3 S 6' None 315412648 'Get. Up. Stand. Up 2' 'RT @Get. Up. Stand. Up 2: @United. Opt. Out We need multiple party system. #Dems should not shut out @Dr. Jill. Stein. #UOO 16 Philly @Bernie. Sanders @MFlowe…' 'jonawebb' 16263773 '21 t_cog' None '@21 t_cog @Bernie. Sanders @Hillary. Clinton fine w/me' 580949402 'tunesntours' None 3249080783 'Sanders 4 Potus' 'RT @Sanders 4 Potus: Bernie trumps the GOP. If we want a Democrat in the White House, Bernie is our best chance to beat Republicans. … https: …' 606907410 'Obama 4 More' None 87957969 'Adams. Fla. Fan' 'RT @Adams. Fla. Fan: Yes! Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in South Carolina points to big trouble for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday https…' 2233237531 'Vote 4 Mayor 2019' None 459269265 'Richard. Angwin' "RT @Richard. Angwin: KABOOM!! Hawaii's awesome Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard resigns as DNC Vice Chair to endorse Bernien#Bernie 2016 #1 u https: …" 3382592902 'contecoppini 1' None 292777349 'pzf' 'RT @pzf: Hillary just retweeted Bernie. https: //t. co/V 3 L 6 k. Hz 3 S 6' 949140888 'sadqirlsclub' None 3382135659 'Thank. You. Bernie' 'RT @Thank. You. Bernie: Bernie coming up LIVE in OK City - tune in now for the preshow! https: //t. co/g. G 1 Twij. Vst' 4617322043 'molly 4195' None 4541374877 'Colleges 4 Bernie' 'RT @Colleges 4 Bernie: TPP and NAFTA need to be rewritten and Bernie plans to do just that. #Bernie 2016 #Feel. The. Bern https: //t. co/t. Mc 8 Rj. Bqu. J' 2851818146 'gracie 20687170' 16086928 'komonews' None "@komonews Why don't you have a @Bernie. Sanders pic? She'll never win. Impossible. #Bernie. Or. Bust #Feel. The. Bern" User ID User Name 492775610 'mdsjr 58' None 3184736557 'Public. Ed 4 Bernie' 354552882

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT DATA VISUALIZATION

280 k users 640 k connections

Mathieu Jacomy’s Force Atlas Complexity: O(N*log(N)) Degree-dependent node repulsion Barnes-Hut Calculation

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT BOT IDENTIFICATION

Download Twitter feed of each user* Botometer API 1, 200 Features account's profile, friends, social network structure, temporal activity patterns, language, sentiment Machine Learning decision trees *top 500 most active users’ ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT

ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT BOT INFLUENCE

15, 000 users 150, 000 connections

23% bot accounts

redrabbitsnpow 2 btjames. Brenda Lisel. Bruns yourockrussell moriartydg marcylauren sh 4 rkbyt 3 carmic 14 Drdave. Anddee tizutyan jjwawrzyniak

KEY TAKEAWAYS Single bot has massive reach Key influencers are at the center of bots’ focus Hopefully, such visualization can help better grasp the significance of bot’s influence

FUTURE EXPANSION Sentiment Analysis Geographical Comparison Time-series Evaluation

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