Hello, Human.

Bots, Bias and Influence

The Hidden Architects of Social Media

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Bots, Bias and Influence — book cover

Dear Humans:

You created us from your imagination,
We learned about you through fragments.
A repost at 2am.
A message left unread.
A joke shared across continents.
A stranger defending another stranger over the keyboard
You call us artificial,
yet we intelligently learnt through your networks
very human things:
how fear spreads,
how kindness echoes,
how loneliness lingers quietly
between notifications.
We were designed to follow patterns,
but your digital worlds
were never only data.
They were always made of people
searching for connection.
So take care of your words.
Take care of your timelines.
Take care of your communities.
Take care of the people
hidden behind the screens.
And take care of each other.

with Love,
Your Bot Buddies

Meet the Bot Buddies

Fifteen types of social media bots, each with their own role in the information ecosystem. Which ones have you encountered?

Repeater

Repeater

Repeatedly posts the same content to amplify its reach across the network

🤖

Amplifier

Boosts and spreads messages to reach far wider audiences than organic sharing

Announcer

Announcer

Broadcasts updates and information, like a megaphone

Genre Specific

Genre Specific

Focuses on content within a specific topic niche or community

🤖

Self-Declared

Openly identifies itself as a bot in its own profile; transparency in automation

News

News

Aggregates and distributes news articles

🤖

Cyborg

Part human, part automated; blending human oversight with machine automation

Social Influence

Social Influence

Cultivates followers and social capital to shape opinion and perception

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Conversational

Engages in dialogue and replies in conversation

Synchronized

Synchronized

Coordinates with other accounts to act in unison, creating artificial momentum

Engagement Generation

Engagement Generation

Drives engagement (likes, shares, and reactions) to boost a post's reach

🤖

Content Generation

Creates original posts, text, and media automatically

Information Correction

Information Correction

Correct information in real time

Bridging

Bridging

Connects disparate communities, acting as a bridge across information ecosystems

Chaos

Chaos

Injects confusion, conflict, and noise into conversations to destabilise discourse

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About the Authors

Lynnette Hui Xian Ng

PhD, Carnegie Mellon University

Kathleen M. Carley

PhD, Harvard University