{"id":40757,"date":"2020-05-21T13:21:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T11:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/?p=40757\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T15:49:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T14:49:04","slug":"fake-news-trolls-bots-social-media-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/fake-news-trolls-bots-social-media-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting disinformation, trolls, and bots on social media during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously had a tremendous impact on the way we consume media and interact on social media. We can\u2019t scroll through our feeds without coming across an article, opinion, or video that is somehow related to the pandemic. But with so much content, we need to be careful about what we believe and share.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, we\u2019ll briefly discuss how fake news, trolls, and bots are impacting social media during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media is generally used for the sake of interacting with other people in a light-hearted way. Even people who use their real social media profiles to troll others don\u2019t tend to go overboard when their identity is known.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve previously discussed how <\/span>social media can be a tool in hybrid warfare<\/span><\/a>, which is still happening today. In short, troll farms use tactics to spread propaganda on the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twitter <\/b>and <\/span>Instagram <\/b>are two social media platforms that are currently doing what they can to detect strange behavior. This could include mass following and unfollowing of other users, posting a lot of content at once, or consistently using banned hashtags. Unfortunately, as bots become better at mimicking people and using language in a natural way,<\/span> it will be difficult to stop propaganda from becoming a trending topic and taking over more space on social media<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coronavirus discourse: Bot or not?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bots by definition aren\u2019t real people. They make someone believe they are interacting with a real person when they\u2019re actually talking to a non-existent being.<\/span> Bots can use hashtags and post content that can ultimately influence the algorithm of different social media platforms<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might be surprised to learn that <\/span>almost half of the Twitter accounts tweeting about COVID-19 are bots<\/span><\/a>, according to researchers from Carnegie Mellon University. It can be difficult to <\/span>discern a troll or a bot from a real person<\/span><\/a>, but there are some signs that can indicate whether the discussion you\u2019re having online is real.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few things you can watch out for:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Potential<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Was the account made recently?<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Do they have a bio\/caption? Is the caption filled with only hashtags?<\/span><\/li>\n
  • How many followers do they have? Do the accounts mutually follow each other?<\/span><\/li>\n
  • How often do they post content? Are there times when they don\u2019t post at all?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Recently, <\/span>Bot Sentinel analysis<\/span><\/a> had spotted bots and trolls attempting to influence lockdown and quarantine protests with hashtags like #ReopenAmericaNow and #StopTheMadness on Twitter. What was the content of their posts? Here\u2019s a short rundown:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Political parties want to prevent people from voting<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Someone is trying to hurt the economy and make the US president look bad<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Inaccurate statistics about the virus mortality rate<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      According to the researchers at Carnegie Mellon University there are also tweets about other conspiracy theories. These include topics such as the 5G towers making people more susceptible to catch the virus, or how hospitals are filled with mannequins.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Bot Sentinel suggests that there is more damaging content on Twitter than we may realize. However, a Twitter spokesperson disputed the claims made by Bot Sentinel, saying that they\u2019re simply <\/span>prioritizing content with calls-to-action that can cause physical harm<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      So for example, the tweet below won\u2019t be taken down because it doesn\u2019t directly tell the readers to do something. Even if the tweet is attempting to instill hostility, it technically might not breach Twitter\u2019s Terms of Service.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

      We need to remember that <\/span>troll farms<\/b> exist. These are essentially people who could be paid to push political agendas by spreading disinformation. Don’t confuse them with bots, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Canada\u2019s Chief of Defence<\/span><\/a> said that there are already signs that people are trying to take advantage of uncertainty and fear online. Even <\/span>Bill Gates is being constantly harassed by trolls <\/span><\/a>online who have hidden their identity. He\u2019s regularly accused of attempting to microchip the population by endorsing the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine. At the moment, <\/span>Russian and Chinese \u201ctroll farms\u201d and officials<\/span><\/a> are being accused of spreading various conspiracy theories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Social media platforms and fact-checking<\/strong><\/h2>\n

      We showed you how disinformation can be spread on social media, now we\u2019ll show you how social media platforms handle it.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Bots, trolls, and real-life uninformed people who post about the conspiracy have different intentions. <\/span>Still, their posts are being taken down on social media because they have the potential to do significant damage<\/b>. Several news outlets such as <\/span>The Hill<\/span><\/a> have reported that some states had a spike in cases shortly after the protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

      What\u2019s more, there are other casualties and damages being done because of the spread of disinformation. For example, <\/span>security guards<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>store clerks are being physically assaulted<\/span><\/a> because they\u2019re informing their patrons that they must wear a mask to shop at their location. These are just a few examples of the severe consequences that social media platforms and organizations are trying to prevent in a variety of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

      YouTube<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      According to <\/span>Statista <\/span><\/a>in 2019, over 500 hours of video content were uploaded to YouTube per minute. It\u2019s clearly a platform with an abundance of content. But how do they manage to prevent users from spreading harmful or inaccurate content?<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

      In YouTube\u2019s case, they\u2019ve regularly spread out CTAs related to COVID-19 on both:<\/span><\/p>\n

      your homepage…<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a>…and underneath videos that you\u2019re watching.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a>What\u2019s more, interviews and media networks\u2019 financial affiliations are made clear underneath the videos for transparency. These are small things that eventually make it easier to prevent disinformation from being spread to a wider audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

      Some videos were completely removed from YouTube due to the amount of unverified information.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Twitter and Facebook<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      It\u2019s also worth remembering that <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a> is <\/span>finally going to put up information about which COVID-19 tweets are fake news<\/b>. Apparently, it will be similar to how Facebook has been labeling false information on its platform:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n

      This is the real test. https:\/\/t.co\/BqlQt3Lj9i<\/a><\/p>\n

      \u2014 Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) May 11, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n