Figure of the week: 55%

Between May and July 2019, bots accounted for a staggering 55% of all Russian-language Twitter messages about the NATO presence in the Baltic States and Poland, a study by the NATO Stratcom Centre of Excellence reveals. This represents an increase in bot activity from the second quarter of this year, when 47% of Russian-language Twitter messages about the NATO presence came from bots.

What are they tweeting about?

The Russian-language bots were particularly interested in NATO military exercises that took place in the Baltic States and Poland during this period. The disinformation network is activated to highlight stories by Sputnik and push the broader narratives, alleging that NATO seeks to increase confrontation with Russia, uses false pretexts to encircle Russia, and threatens the global security (also see here). At the same time, countries hosting international military exercises are portrayed as militant and destitute.

What’s new in the bot-world?

The long-term study of bot activity also revealed sharp changes in bot tactics on Twitter. As the platform aims to prevent inauthentic activity, malicious actors adapt their behavior in order to avoid detection. In the past two years, there has also been an increase of Russian “news-bots”. 
In the disinformation ecosystem, “news-bots” are used to spread content from fringe or fake-news websites. The increase of this type of bot is likely connected to the fact that accounts pretending to be news outlets are less likely to be removed from the platform.

From summer 2017 onwards, the NATO CoE also observed the emergence of “mention-trolls”: fake accounts that only tweet at other users. Their objective is to flood journalists’ and institutions’ accounts with fake feedback, rendering any kind of meaningful discussion impossible.

As the dynamics of coordinated inauthentic behavior online are shifting, it is important as ever to strengthen our abilities to spot it.

More about the study: https://www.stratcomcoe.org/robotrolling-20193