Bots author one in four climate denier tweets

"You can recognize bots by various characteristics: for example, they are always active at the same time of day and always post the same number of tweets. When it comes to content, they have no empathy, they don't react to anything, they just disseminate synchronized messages. In addition, their profile contains no traceable personal information. Another typical characteristic of bots is that they usually follow each other and amplify each other's reach; they always appear in swarms," explains communications expert Christian Scherg in an interview with the news portal Pressetext.

The researchers analyzed 6.5 million tweets that were written around 1 June 2017, when US President Donald Trump announced that the USA would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. They used a tool from the University of Indiana called "Botometer", which measures the probability that a bot is behind a tweet. A large proportion of the tweets applauding Trump's decision to withdraw from the climate agreement turned out to be automatically generated.

"Trust is being shaken"

The bots are software that can independently create posts and like or retweet posts from other accounts. They pretend to be human Twitter users. Bots were responsible for around 25 percent of tweets on the topic of the climate crisis during the period under investigation. The figure was even higher for other topics, such as "fake science" (38%).

The researchers warn against the spread of fake news by Twitter bots. There is relative scientific consensus on the existence of climate change. "Not only is it dangerous that people could believe this misinformation, but also that its very existence can shake people's confidence in accurate information," the Guardian quotes study leader Thomas Marlow. (pte/swi)