Bots and trolls spread arson lies

The Queensland University of Technology senior lecturer on social network analysis Dr Timothy Graham examined content published on the #arsonemergency hashtag on Twitter, assessing 1,340 tweets, 1,203 of which were unique, published by 315 accounts. Using a Twitter bot detection tool, he assessed a random sample for bot-like characteristics. His preliminary analysis found there is likely a “current disinformation campaign” on Twitter’s #arsonemergency hashtag due to the “suspiciously high number of bot-like and troll-like accounts”.

He similarly found a large number of suspicious accounts posting on the #australiafire and #bushfireaustralia hashtags.

“Australia suddenly appears to be getting swamped by mis/disinformation as a result of this environmental catastrophe, and we are suffering the consequences in terms of hyped up polarisation and an increased difficulty and inability for citizens to discern truth,”
Bots and trolls spread false arson claims in Australian fires ‘disinformation campaign’
Online posts exaggerating the role of arson are being used to undermine the link between bushfires and climate change

https://amp.theguardian.com/austral...al-media-disinformation-campaign-false-claims