The Use of Twitter Bots in Russian Political Communication

• In Event: Government and Opposition in Russia: Activism, Protest and Social Media

Abstract

Abundant anecdotal evidence suggests that authoritarian regimes have recently become increasingly active in their use of social media for disinformation and propaganda via bots and trolls. Previous research has shown that this is particularly true about Russian political Twitter. In this paper, we build on our previous work on bot detection and sentiment analysis of Russian Twitter bots to reverse-engineer the political strategies behind the use of bots for either strengthening or challenging Putin's rule in Russia and his activities abroad. We reveal different types of coordinated bot activity for both pro-regime and anti-regime accounts and show how different types of political events motivate the use of different bot deployment strategies by both the government and its opponents.

Authors

• Denis Stukal, New York University

• Sergey Sanovich, New York University

• Richard Bonneau, NYU

• Joshua A. Tucker, New York University