Trolls and bots are flooding social media with disinformation encouraging states to end quarantine [
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Protests have popped up around the US calling for states to end quarantine and reopen businesses.
An analysis from Bot Sentinel, a bot tracking platform, found that bots and trolls have been stoking sentiments online that have fueled the protests, using hashtags like #ReopenAmericaNow and #StopTheMadness.
Online disinformation seemingly used to stoke political tension in the US has been frequently reported on since the 2016 election when Russian actors used bots and active trolling to support Donald Trump, organize events, and spread political memes.
Brooke Binkowski, managing editor of the fact-checking website Truth or Fiction, says that reporters need to do a better job of reporting on the protests in the context of the disinformation.
Videos of protesters around the nation demanding their governors reopen businesses have been all over social media over the past week or so, and Donald Trump has offered pseudo-encouragement by tweeting that they need to "liberate" states like Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. The same rhetoric that is being used at these protests has been spreading like wildfire on social media as bots and trolls attempt to use disinformation to get states to reopen.
Christopher Bouzy, the founder of bot tracking platform Bot Sentinel, conducted a Twitter analysis for Business Insider and found bots and trolls are using hashtags like #ReOpenNC, #ReopenAmericaNow, #StopTheMadness, #ENDTHESHUTDOWN, and #OperationGridlock to spread disinformation. According to Bouzy, the bots and trolls are spreading conspiracy theories about Democrats wanting to hurt the economy to make Trump look bad, Democrats trying to take away people's civil liberties, and Democrats trying to prevent people from voting. The accounts are also using false data to underplay the threat of the coronavirus.
"We use machine learning and artificial intelligence to classify accounts," Bouzy says. "Back in 2018, I trained the initial model using 2,500 normal Twitter accounts, and 2500 inauthentic accounts I was tracking for several months. Approximately 5,000,000 tweets were used to create the first model."
"Inauthentic accounts are amplifying disinformation and inaccurate statistics and sharing false information as a reason to reopen the country," Bouzy says. "Many of these accounts are also spreading bizarre conspiracy theories about Democrats using COVID-19 as a way to take away American freedoms and prevent Americans from voting."
United States
Thanks for reminding me Isis. 
CS