Chinese Twitter bots are clearly fake, but they might still be influential
Pro-Beijing accounts attacking the Hong Kong protests might not look authentic, but that doesn't matter if they're trending
If you ever find yourself browsing Twitter these days, you might stumble across actress Keira Nightley obsessively sharing news about China. But not really Keira Knightley. It could be a bot using her photo as a profile picture.
This is just one of the signs that a Twitter account is fake and possibly part of a disinformation campaign, according to researchers. This is what happened with state-backed campaigns from Russia during the 2016 US election and China during the ongoing anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
But as the Keira Knightley picture might indicate, many of these accounts are surprisingly unconvincing. But that might not matter.
“The main thing to remember about bots is that they are not targeting individual users, they are targeting Twitter's algorithms,” said Donara Barojan, a disinformation expert at Astroscreen. The same is true for any other social networks where this practice is prevalent, she added
The main objective of these bots is to get something to trend. The Mandarin word for “thugs,” for example, was used to describe Hong Kong protesters. Once a hashtag is trending, it could be seen by millions. Those who are against the protests might feel validated while supporters feel outnumbered. And those who are undecided might feel the need to embrace the most popular view, Barojan said.
