INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesA study by researchers at Brown University has found a quarter of posts about climate change on Twitter were
written by bots.Bots are computer programs that can masquerade as humans to post or send messages on social media.Researchers discovered
tweets posted by bots created the impression there was a high level of climate change denial.The paper detailing the finds has not yet been
published and was first reported by The Guardian newspaper.The research team analysed 6.5 million tweets from the period surrounding
President Donald Trump's June 2017 announcement that he was removing the United States from the Paris climate accord.The finding showed 25%
of tweets on climate change were likely posted by bots
Most of those tweets centred on denials of global warming or rejections of climate science."These findings suggest a substantial impact of
mechanized bots in amplifying denials messages about climate change," the authors of the reporter wrote, according to The Guardian
Bots are automated to post or send messages but they must be set up by a human
The Brown University team could not identify who was behind these climate change denying bots
Bots for both sidesResearchers used a tool from Indiana University called Botometer to determine the probability that a tweet was sent by
Within the overarching topic of climate change, they also broke down several subcategories.Tweets about "fake science" were found to have
been written by bots 38% of the time and 28% of tweets about oil company Exxon were posted by bots.Posts in support of action to protect the
environment were far less likely to come from bots
Researchers found only 5% of tweets advocating such action came from this type of software.Emilio Ferrara, a research professor at the
University of Southern California - who has conducted his own research on the influence of bots - explained this type of software is used
to amplify a message."Think of a bot as a megaphone," Professor Ferrara said."Bots give the impression that there is organic support behind
a movement or idea."Paris climate accord During the days directly surrounding President Trump's announcement that the US was leaving the
Paris agreement, there was a general increase in the number of posts about climate change
This included the number of posts by bots - they rose from hundreds per day to more than 25,000 per days.But because more humans were also
posting about climate change during this period the percentage of bot posts was reduced
They made up just 13% of all posts during that time.Though the Brown University study was unable to identify who set up the bots, Professor
Ferrara, from USC, said there is cause for concern."If someone is manipulating the messages that we consumer online then there is a reason
to be concerned that they are changing people's perceptions or beliefs," he told the TheIndianSubcontinent
