Detecting Bots and Assessing Their Impact in Social Networks

Abstract

Bots Impact Opinions in Social Networks: Let’s Measure How Much There is a serious threat posed by bots that try to manipulate opinions in social networks. In “Assessing the Impact of Bots on Social Networks,” Nicolas Guenon des Mesnards, David Scott Hunter, Zakaria el Hjouiji, and Tauhid Zaman present a new set of operational capabilities to detect these bots and measure their impact. They developed an algorithm based on the Ising model from statistical physics to find coordinating gangs of bots in social networks. They then created an algorithm based on opinion dynamics models to quantify the impact that bots have on opinions in a social network. They applied their algorithms to a variety of real social network data sets. They found that, for topics such as Brexit, the bots had little impact, whereas for topics such as the U.S. presidential debate and the Gilets Jaunes protests in France, the bots had a significant impact.