Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read the abstract but not the paper. If it's accurate, it is an incredibly surprising result. We already know the Russians are pros at manipulating social media for the purposes of HUMINT, propaganda, etc. If they only represent 7% of bots, that means that: 1. Another actor, possibly a nation-state, is putting even more resources than Russia is into shaping the narrative, 2. Russia isn't actually trying very hard m…
> We already know the Russians are pros at manipulating social media How do we know this?
More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#22Why is this surprising or newsworthy? Putin is the villain.. straight up. Edit: thx for the drive-by downvote feedback, would appreciate if you'd engage directly if I'm missing something
I read the abstract but not the paper. If it's accurate, it is an incredibly surprising result. We already know the Russians are pros at manipulating social media for the purposes of HUMINT, propaganda, etc. If they only represent 7% of bots, that means that: 1. Another actor, possibly a nation-state, is putting even more resources than Russia is into shaping the narrative, 2. Russia isn't actually trying very hard m…
I think you're missing the most likely possibility:
3. Russia is operating pro-Ukrainian bots to influence pro-Ukrainian people.
The bots pretend to be pro-Ukrainian but then try to influence the public opinion in the ways that are useful to Russia.
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We already know the Russians are pros at manipulating social media How do we know this?
https://about.fb.com/news/2017/10/hard-questions-russian-ads...
Running an ad campaign is considered being a pro at manipulating social media? What did the campaign actually achieve?
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#24Why is this surprising or newsworthy? Putin is the villain.. straight up. Edit: thx for the drive-by downvote feedback, would appreciate if you'd engage directly if I'm missing something
Here we go again. Finding the villain of the year. This year it is Putin, Trump last year, etc pushed by the media and its propaganda. Anything that goes against it like this paper is upsetting those who believe what the media says and does and doesn't question their views or stories either. It can spread from bots on either side and with that you need to question both views on who is spreading their propaganda to di…
2005, Modi was the villian and banned from US
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-narendra-modi-was-banned-fr...
Followed by Saddam, then it was Assad, then it was Gaddafi Then it was little rocket man. 2019 it was Xi. 2020 it was Trump.
2022 it's Putin.
I am taking bets on who the propaganda is going to nominate in 2023. Nominees are: Saudi Arabia MBS, Iran Ali Kamanei, Imran Khan, Modi (again), North Korea (again), Solomon Islands (because they snubbed US and denied entry to US ships)
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2022-08-25/sol...
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#25Am I reading it wrong, or does the article say that 90% of _accounts_ are pro-Ukrainian, 7% pro-Russian?
Section 3.0 describes how they got the dataset (all tweets in a timeframe with a "#IStandWith[Ukraine|Russia|Zelynskyy|Putin]" hashtag).
Section 3.1 describes how they assign national 'lean' to the accounts in their entire dataset; that's the section that has the 90%/7% numbers.
Section 3.2 describes how they quantify bot activity in their dataset, using a program called BotoMeter to apparently run regression on accounts in the dataset.
Section 4 gives the average botometer scores by national lean. This is the oddest of all, since the botometer scores for both sides are roughly equal.
It seems to imply that Ukraine and Russia both had bot armies that were roughly equal in proportion to the total number of accounts favouring their national camp, despite the huge disparity in the size of the national camps (90% vs 7%). Which seems odd.
[Edit: to clarify: I may have missed it but the paper doesn't seem to give a clear statement on %bot/country anywhere.]
All this article really does is make me curious about botometer accuracy and the usefulness of a 'IStandWith*' filter for doing a study like this.
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#26Russian bots got into the arxiv, how much does it cost?
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bots drummed up the public opinion and the war. Wouldn't you think this is a possibility?
It's absolutely possible that the bots drummed up public opinion. But regardless of what public opinion is or why it is what it is, it's also clear who the aggressor is.
>it's also clear who the aggressor is.
let me guess. NATO?
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read the abstract but not the paper. If it's accurate, it is an incredibly surprising result. We already know the Russians are pros at manipulating social media for the purposes of HUMINT, propaganda, etc. If they only represent 7% of bots, that means that: 1. Another actor, possibly a nation-state, is putting even more resources than Russia is into shaping the narrative, 2. Russia isn't actually trying very hard m…
I think you're missing the most likely possibility: 3. Russia is operating pro-Ukrainian bots to influence pro-Ukrainian people. The bots pretend to be pro-Ukrainian but then try to influence the public opinion in the ways that are useful to Russia.
Why is a scenario that needs the requires the most assumptions the most likely?
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#29Why is this surprising or newsworthy? Putin is the villain.. straight up. Edit: thx for the drive-by downvote feedback, would appreciate if you'd engage directly if I'm missing something
A play by play approach of US that it did in Syria https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/02/22/is-there-ac... Note that this person from NATO who wrote this nytimes article asking to arm ISIS with anti-aircraft is now the content director of reddit.
The US didn't force Russians to shoot... checks notes sorry, no, brutally torture and execute civilians and level entire towns. They did that all on their own.
Re: More than 90% of the bots are Pro-Ukrainian, with fewer than 7% pro-Russian
#30Am I reading it wrong, or does the article say that 90% of _accounts_ are pro-Ukrainian, 7% pro-Russian? Section 3.0 describes how they got the dataset (all tweets in a timeframe with a "#IStandWith[Ukraine|Russia|Zelynskyy|Putin]" hashtag). Section 3.1 describes how they assign national 'lean' to the accounts in their entire dataset; that's the section that has the 90%/7% numbers. Section 3.2 describes how they quan…
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