Strategies and Influence of Social Bots in a 2017 German state election - A case study on Twitter

TL;DR

This study investigates the role and strategies of social bots on Twitter during a 2017 German state election, revealing limited influence and no evidence of coordinated political campaigns.

Contribution

It provides a case study analyzing social bot behavior and influence in a regional election context, highlighting the limited impact of bots in this scenario.

Findings

61 social bots identified

Bots showed no signs of collective political strategies

Limited influence of bots on election discourse

Abstract

As social media has permeated large parts of the population it simultaneously has become a way to reach many people e.g. with political messages. One way to efficiently reach those people is the application of automated computer programs that aim to simulate human behaviour - so called social bots. These bots are thought to be able to potentially influence users' opinion about a topic. To gain insight in the use of these bots in the run-up to the German Bundestag elections, we collected a dataset from Twitter consisting of tweets regarding a German state election in May 2017. The strategies and influence of social bots were analysed based on relevant features and network visualization. 61 social bots were identified. Possibly due to the concentration on German language as well as the elections regionality, identified bots showed no signs of collective political strategies and low to none influence. Implications are discussed.