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The next-generation bots interfering with the US election

Data scientist Emilio Ferrara tells Nature that fake social-media accounts are harder to detect than ever before.
  1. Giorgia Guglielmi
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Social-media platforms such as Twitter were used to sow discord in the United States in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, according to a report finalized this year by the US Senate. Russian operatives used tools such as bots — automated accounts that share content — in an attempt to deceive social-media users in the United States and sway the election in favour of President Donald Trump, the report found.

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Nature 587, 21 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03034-5

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

References

  1. Bessi, A. & Ferrara, E. First Monday https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i11.7090 (2016).

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  2. Ferrara, E., Chang, H., Chen, E., Muric, G. & Patel, J. First Monday https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i11.11431 (2020).

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