Experts are warning the spread of disinformation by bots on social media could exploit divisions in the U.S. ahead of the 2020 elections, The Hill is reporting.
Two recent hashtags on Twitter helped put the spotlight back on the bot issue once again. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was targeted with #MoscowMitch for not allowing a vote on an election security bill. And #KamalaHarrisDestroyed pushed the idea that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. had done poorly during the last Democratic debate.
Some insisted those hashtags were promoted by regular Twitter users, while others maintained disinformation from fake accounts is now picking up again, according to The Hill.
Bot Sentinel, designed to track bot activity, listed #KamalaHarrisDestroyed as one of the top ten hashtags tweeted by bot accounts during the two days after the Democratic debate.
But a Twitter spokesperson said "initial investigations have not found evidence of bot activity amplifying either of the cited hashtags."
"These were driven by organic, authentic conversation,” the spokesperson said.
“Using technology and human review in concert, we proactively monitor Twitter to identify attempts at platform manipulation and mitigate them.”
Paul Barrett, the deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business, told The Hill that Russians and others continue to “stir dissent and division” on social media.
And The Wall Street Journal found hundreds of social-media accounts with bot-like traits pushed misinformation designed to inflame racial divisions during both nights of the Democratic debates.
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