Ever-more sophisticated Facebook and Twitter bots can sway political opinions. We acquire the technology to counter this we need the will to use itCan social bots – pieces of software that perform automated tasks influence humans on social media platforms? That’s a question congressional investigators are asking social media companies ever since fears emerged that they were deployed in 2016 to influence the presidential election.
Half a decade ago we were among a handful of researchers who could see the power of relatively simple pieces of software to influence people. Back in 2012,the Institute for the Future, for which we work, and ran an experimental contest to see how they might be used to influence people on Twitter. Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk