What makes a bot a bot? Exploring benign automation on Twitter
Detail of follow network with automation probabilities represented by colour from blue (0) to red (1).Abstract
We present a study on bot detection and its interpretation by assessing the different types of automation that one of the most popular methods for bot detection, Botometer (https://botometer.iuni.iu.edu/), detects. The study is based on the first project to assess the prevalence, influence, and roles of automated accounts in a Twitter follow network on a national scale: the German-speaking Twittersphere. This work in progress allows us to analyse the long-term structural role, impact, and possible audience of bots beyond the context of single events and topics.
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