Bot-like X accounts having 'oversized influence' on General Election, study says
Posts from ten “bot-like” X accounts spreading disinformation and hate have been viewed more than 150 million times ahead of the UK General Election, according to a new study.
NGO Global Witness found the accounts shared over 60,000 posts on X, since May 2022. The posts were viewed an estimated 150 million times.
Many of them contained “extreme and violent” hate speech, disinformation, conspiracy theories and praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the organisation said.
It found that posts amplified by these bot-like accounts have spread Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia and transphobia.
Some posts have claimed climate change is a “hoax”, vaccines have created a “genocide”, and that Putin is “the greatest president ever”.
The investigation found the bot-like accounts by searching among hashtags on migration and climate change.
Global Witness, an international NGO that focuses on the environment and human rights, said it considered accounts were bot-like if they had three or more “red flags”.
These included posting prolifically, having handles that end in a long string of numbers, and not having a profile picture that appears to be of the person running the account.
All ten of the accounts identified in the study had days when they shared more than 200 posts. Four of the accounts shared over 400 posts on some days.
The study said: “The number of bot-like accounts we uncovered is also limited, but they have an extremely oversized influence given how prolifically they post and the number of people who are seeing their content.”
Out of the three accounts posting the hashtag #stoptheboats, two of them encouraged people to vote for Reform UK.
All of the five accounts found to use the hashtag #labourlosing promoted Reform UK.
One of the ten accounts had MBGA (Make Britain Great Again) alongside MAGA (Make America Great Again) and anti-migrant hashtags in their bio.
Another account described itself in its bio as being pro-Palestine, the environment and the NHS.
It focused on stopping votes for the Conservative Party and regularly posts anti-Nigel Farage memes.
There is no evidence that any UK political party is paying for, using or promoting bots as part of their election campaigns, Global Witness said.
Campaign leader at the organisation Ava Lee said politically polarised posts which may have been fuelled by bots threaten our democracy.
She said: “The UK is going to the polls in under a week. The US in four months. Half the world’s population this year. X, and all social media companies, need to clean up their platforms and put our democracies before profit.”
X did not respond to attempts to obtain a comment on the findings.
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