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#NOTABOT
BACKLASH
Authors appear to backtrack after vapers
attack social media bot report
Words: Gordon Stribling
W
hat was once seen as a huge leap in cross-cultural
connectivity is now considered by many to be
nothing more than a hotbed of attention-seeking
and negativity. The pitfalls of social media have only been
magnifi ed as politics has become more polarised, though the
two almost certainly feed into one another.
Twitter is perhaps the most notorious of all the major
platforms. The rolling feed and political usership are a recipe
for hot-headed conflict. And there are countless politically-
minded vapers on the platform attempting to combat the
daily slew of misinformation.
But a new report has suggested that many of these accounts
are just automated social media ‘bots.’ These programs
generate content, follow users, collect followers and share
messages.
On October 14, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that
the federal government was investigating whether bots were
misleading the public about the safety and health effects of
vaping.
According to a Public Good Projects (PGP) report cited in
the story, bots generate more than half of Twitter’s vaping
content.
Researchers analysed 1,288,378 twitter messages posted
between February 1, 2019 and June 1, 2019 and found that
60 VM26
nearly 80 percent were posted by ‘suspected or highly likely
bots.’
Many of these bots promoted switching from smoking to
vaping, often making pro-vape comments in anti-tobacco
conversations. Others said that scientists were hiding the
truth about vaping and that the likes of the CDC were lying
about e-cigarettes.
The press release said:
“At face value, bot messaging can appear to be anti-tobacco,
anti-smoking, and pro-health. However, what appears to be
messaging highlighting the transgressions of the tobacco
industry may actually be pro-vaping content generated by
bots.”
The WSJ story picked up a lot of traction on Twitter, and soon
the #NotABot hashtag went into overdrive, thanks to the
outraged, but often amused, Twitter vape army. The mood
was captured by an indignant Grimm Green, who said:
“They downplay our numbers.
“They call us bots.
“They suppress information.
“They confuse.
“They mislead.
“They lie.
“We aren’t going anywhere.”