On the influence of social bots in online protests. Preliminary findings of a Mexican case study

Social bots can affect online communication among humans. We study this phenomenon by focusing on #YaMeCanse, the most active protest hashtag in the history of Twitter in Mexico. Accounts using the hashtag are classified using the BotOrNot bot detection tool. Our preliminary analysis suggests that bots played a critical role in disrupting online communication about the protest movement.Comment: 10 page

The Impact of Disinformation on a Controversial Debate on Social Media

In this work we study how pervasive is the presence of disinformation in the Italian debate around immigration on Twitter and the role of automated accounts in the diffusion of such content. By characterising the Twitter users with an \textit{Untrustworthiness} score, that tells us how frequently they engage with disinformation content, we are able to see that such bad information consumption habits are not equally distributed across the users; adopting a network analysis approach, we can identify communities characterised by a very high presence of users that frequently share content from unreliable news sources. Within this context, social bots tend to inject in the network more malicious content, that often remains confined in a limited number of clusters; instead, they target reliable content in order to diversify their reach. The evidence we gather suggests that, at least in this particular case study, there is a strong interplay between social bots and users engaging with unreliable content, influencing the diffusion of the latter across the network

Social Bot in Social Media: Detections and Impacts of Social Bot on Twitter Users

A social bot is a computer algorithm that automatically produces content and interacts with humans on social media, trying to emulate and possibly alter their behavior. Social bots have inhabited social media platforms for the past few years. Although the initial intention of social bot might be benign, existence of social bot can also bring negative implication to society. For example, in the aftermath of Boston marathon bombing, a lot of tweets has been retweeted without people verifying its accuracy. Therefore, social bot might have the tendency to spread fake news and incite chaos in public. For example, after the Parkland, Florida school shooting, Russian propaganda bots are trying to seize on divisive issues online to sow discord in the United States.This study describes a questionnaire survey of Twitter users about their Twitter usage, ways to detect social bots on Twitter, sentiments towards social bots, as well as how the users protect themselves against harmful social bots. The survey also uses an experimental approach where participants upload a screenshot of a social bot. The result of the survey shows that Twitter bots bring more harms than benefits to Twitter users. However, the advancement of social bots has been so great that it has been hard for human to identify real Twitter users from fake Twitter users. That’s why it is very important for the computing community to engage in finding advanced methods to automatically detect social bots, or to discriminate between humans and bots. Until that process can be fully automated, we need to continue educating more Twitter users about ways to protect themselves against harmful social bots.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Transforming Mexico: social movements, human rights and social media

Mexico’s partial democratic transition resulted in widespread violence, human rights violations, inequality, corruption and impunity, frustrating the hopes and aspirations of many sections of society. However, between 2011 and 2016 three major social movements emerged to challenge injustice and demand social change. The Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity, YoSoy132 and Ayotzinapa 43 were plural non-institutional social mobilizations empowering those victimised and marginalized in the defective democratic settlement. Human rights discourse and digital and social media have become embedded in political discourse and social practice around the world, but their meaning, uses and implications are complex and contested. This thesis examines their role in contentious collective movements in Mexico’s specific socio-political context. Qualitative case study research methods are used to examine their dynamic uses and meanings in the three mobilization processes in order to explore their enabling and constraining features. The thesis also draws on the author’s previous experience as an international human rights advocate and researcher working on Latin America. The research shows the diverse ways that human rights discourse and digital and social media feature in the practice and meaning of each movement. They are understood to enhance key aspects of civil society mobilization processes, such as strengthening the impact of trigger events and enabling the configuration of skilled support networks, but also to entail certain constraining logics which the movements grapple with to sustain contention. They contribute shaping qualities to the movements but do not monopolise or determine their practices or meaning. These are rooted in the dynamic adaptive approaches of plural actors engaging with their concrete social and political context, creatively using the resources available to mount collective public sphere challenges to the powerholders of Mexico’s partial democracy