Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors

Recently, social bots , (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through “opinion machines” c...

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Main Authors: Dennis Assenmacher, Lena Clever, Lena Frischlich, Thorsten Quandt, Heike Trautmann, Christian Grimme
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-09-01
Series:Social Media + Society
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120939264
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spelling doaj-489de967415b4499b113fe4a24f004042020-11-25T03:39:59ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512020-09-01610.1177/2056305120939264Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media ActorsDennis Assenmacher0Lena Clever1Lena Frischlich2Thorsten Quandt3Heike Trautmann4Christian Grimme5University of Münster, GermanyUniversity of Münster, GermanyLMU Munich, GermanyUniversity of Münster, GermanyUniversity of Münster, GermanyUniversity of Münster, GermanyRecently, social bots , (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through “opinion machines” created headlines around the globe. As a consequence, much research effort has been put into the classification and detection of social bots. Yet, it is still unclear how easy an average online media user can purchase social bots, which platforms they target, where they originate from, and how sophisticated these bots are. This work provides a much needed new perspective on these questions. By providing insights into the markets of social bots in the clearnet and darknet as well as an exhaustive analysis of freely available software tools for automation during the last decade, we shed light on the availability and capabilities of automated profiles in social media platforms. Our results confirm the increasing importance of social bot technology but also uncover an as yet unknown discrepancy of theoretical and practically achieved artificial intelligence in social bots: while literature reports on a high degree of intelligence for chat bots and assumes the same for social bots, the observed degree of intelligence in social bot implementations is limited. In fact, the overwhelming majority of available services and software are of supportive nature and merely provide modules of automation instead of fully fledged “intelligent” social bots.https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120939264
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Dennis Assenmacher
Lena Clever
Lena Frischlich
Thorsten Quandt
Heike Trautmann
Christian Grimme
spellingShingle Dennis Assenmacher
Lena Clever
Lena Frischlich
Thorsten Quandt
Heike Trautmann
Christian Grimme
Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors
Social Media + Society
author_facet Dennis Assenmacher
Lena Clever
Lena Frischlich
Thorsten Quandt
Heike Trautmann
Christian Grimme
author_sort Dennis Assenmacher
title Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors
title_short Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors
title_full Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors
title_fullStr Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors
title_full_unstemmed Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors
title_sort demystifying social bots: on the intelligence of automated social media actors
publisher SAGE Publishing
series Social Media + Society
issn 2056-3051
publishDate 2020-09-01
description Recently, social bots , (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through “opinion machines” created headlines around the globe. As a consequence, much research effort has been put into the classification and detection of social bots. Yet, it is still unclear how easy an average online media user can purchase social bots, which platforms they target, where they originate from, and how sophisticated these bots are. This work provides a much needed new perspective on these questions. By providing insights into the markets of social bots in the clearnet and darknet as well as an exhaustive analysis of freely available software tools for automation during the last decade, we shed light on the availability and capabilities of automated profiles in social media platforms. Our results confirm the increasing importance of social bot technology but also uncover an as yet unknown discrepancy of theoretical and practically achieved artificial intelligence in social bots: while literature reports on a high degree of intelligence for chat bots and assumes the same for social bots, the observed degree of intelligence in social bot implementations is limited. In fact, the overwhelming majority of available services and software are of supportive nature and merely provide modules of automation instead of fully fledged “intelligent” social bots.
url https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120939264
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