Bots increase exposure to negative and inflammatory content in online social systems

TL;DR

This study analyzes how social bots on Twitter during the Catalan referendum amplify exposure to negative content, especially targeting influential users, thereby increasing online social conflict.

Contribution

It provides large-scale empirical evidence of social bots' role in spreading inflammatory content and exacerbating polarization in online social systems.

Findings

Bots target influential users with inflammatory content

Bots increase exposure to negative narratives for specific groups

Social bots amplify social conflict online

Abstract

Societies are complex systems which tend to polarize into sub-groups of individuals with dramatically opposite perspectives. This phenomenon is reflected -- and often amplified -- in online social networks where, however, humans are no more the only players, and co-exist alongside with social bots, i.e., software-controlled accounts. Analyzing large-scale social data collected during the Catalan referendum for independence on October 1, 2017, consisting of nearly 4 millions Twitter posts generated by almost 1 million users, we identify the two polarized groups of Independentists and Constitutionalists and quantify the structural and emotional roles played by social bots. We show that bots act from peripheral areas of the social system to target influential humans of both groups, bombarding Independentists with violent contents, increasing their exposure to negative and inflammatory narratives and exacerbating social conflict online. Our findings stress the importance of developing countermeasures to unmask these forms of automated social manipulation.