Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday.
Researchers examined more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans.
It is too early to say conclusively which individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts, but researchers said the tweets appeared aimed at sowing division in America.
"We do know that it looks like it's a propaganda machine, and it definitely matches the Russian and Chinese playbooks, but it would take a tremendous amount of resources to substantiate that," said Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who is conducting a study into bot-generated COVID-19 activity on Twitter that has yet to be published.
Researchers identified more than 100 false narratives about the coronavirus that are proliferating on Twitter by accounts likely controlled by bots, including: conspiracy theories about hospitals being filled with mannequins or how the spread of the coronavirus is related to 5G wireless towers, a notion that is patently untrue.