Robots spreading links on Twitter | AI bots
The research centre PEW conducted a survey as part of the ongoing debate in the US about Americans’ news habits. The concept of online opinion sharing and the prevalence of “fake news” online.
The Pew Research Center conducted the survey using a list of 2,315 most popular websites and examined approximately 1.2 million English language user tweets that included links to these websites during July 27 to September 11, 2017. Results show that automated accounts play a key role in sharing links to a variety of different sites on Twitter.
Conclusions of the study
Several conclusions come from the study, which included the following:
- 66% of links being shared in tweets containing popular websites are coming from automated or “bot” accounts.
- The percentage (66%) is the same for “tweeted” links pointing to news sites. The share of links to tweets created by bots is increasing, particularly among popular sites in certain verticals. Automated engines, according to estimations, posted 89% of links to web-based news articles.
- A relatively small number of very active robots are responsible for a large share of links to major media outlets. 500 most active AI bots account for 22% of the tweeted links to popular news and current affairs sites. In contrast, about 500 of the most active users are responsible for a much smaller percentage of links. These links lead to the same sites (around 6%).
- The researchers of the study have concluded that there is no information about “automated accounts” which exists that shows a “liberal or conservative bias” in the link sharing process.
Many sites – particularly those with adult-related content and sports-related content – have a large share of their Twitter links coming from automated accounts. “Robot” accounts were responsible for approx. 90% of all tweeted links from popular adult sites during the study period. The figure is 76% for sites with a focus on sports. Next up are sites with commercial content (73%), news content, celebrity news (62%) and links to organisation or group websites (53%).
On average, only half of the links shared from automated accounts are from Twitter’s website.
It was found that 75% of bot-shared links (sites without a contact page) were shared during the period under review, compared to 60% of shares for sites with a contact page.
Among news and current affairs sites, political news websites are the least likely to have “robots” tweeting their articles (57%). The figure rises to 74% for news and current affairs sites with no political content.
If you liked this article, then you might also enjoy this one.
Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
