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Hybrid Intelligence Strategies for Identifying, Classifying and Analyzing Political Bots

Author

Listed:
  • Berta García-Orosa

    (Department of Communication Sciences, Universidad de Santiago, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

  • Pablo Gamallo

    (Centro de Investigación en Tecnoloxías da Información, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

  • Patricia Martín-Rodilla

    (Information Retrieval Lab, Centro de Investigación en Tecnoloxías da Información e as Comunicacións (CITIC), Universidade da Coruña, Campus de Elviña s/n CP, 15071 A Coruña, Spain)

  • Rodrigo Martínez-Castaño

    (Centro de Investigación en Tecnoloxías da Información, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

Abstract

Political bots, through astroturfing and other strategies, have become important players in recent elections in several countries. This study aims to provide researchers and the citizenry with the necessary knowledge to design strategies to identify bots and counteract what international organizations have deemed bots’ harmful effects on democracy and, simultaneously, improve automatic detection of them. This study is based on two innovative methodological approaches: (1) dealing with bots using hybrid intelligence (HI), a multidisciplinary perspective that combines artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing, political science, and communication science, and (2) applying framing theory to political bots. This paper contributes to the literature in the field by (a) applying framing to the analysis of political bots, (b) defining characteristics to identify signs of automation in Spanish, (c) building a Spanish-language bot database, (d) developing a specific classifier for Spanish-language accounts, (e) using HI to detect bots, and (f) developing tools that enable the everyday citizen to identify political bots through framing.

Suggested Citation

  • Berta García-Orosa & Pablo Gamallo & Patricia Martín-Rodilla & Rodrigo Martínez-Castaño, 2021. "Hybrid Intelligence Strategies for Identifying, Classifying and Analyzing Political Bots," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:10:p:357-:d:644015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chong, Dennis & Druckman, James N., 2007. "Framing Public Opinion in Competitive Democracies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 101(4), pages 637-655, November.
    2. Massimo Anelli & Italo Colantone & Piero Stanig, 2019. "We Were the Robots: Automation and Voting Behavior in Western Europe," CESifo Working Paper Series 7758, CESifo.
    3. Carl Benedikt Frey & Thor Berger & Chinchih Chen, 2018. "Political machinery: did robots swing the 2016 US presidential election?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 34(3), pages 418-442.
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