Finding Automated (Bot, Sensor) or Semi-Automated (Cyborg) Social Media Accounts Using Network Analysis and NodeXL Basic

Abstract

Various research findings suggest that humans often mistake social robot (‘bot) accounts for human in a microblogging context. The core research question here asks whether the use of social network analysis may help identify whether a social media account is fully automated, semi-automated, or fully human (embodied personhood)—in the contexts of Twitter and Wikipedia. Three hypotheses are considered: that automated social media account networks will have less diversity and less heterophily; that automated social media accounts will tend to have a botnet social structure, and that cyborg accounts will have select features of human- and robot- social media accounts. The findings suggest limited ability to differentiate the levels of automation in a social media account based solely on social network analysis alone in the face of a determined and semi-sophisticated adversary given the ease of network account sock-puppetry but does suggest some effective detection approaches in combination with other information streams.