You Are a Bot! – Studying the Development of Bot Accusations on Twitter

Abstract

The characterization and detection of bots with their presumed ability to manipulate society on social media platforms have been subject to many research endeavors over the last decade. In the absence of ground truth data (i.e., accounts that are labeled as bots by experts or self-declare their automated nature), researchers interested in the characterization and detection of bots may want to tap into the wisdom of the crowd. But how many people need to accuse another user as a bot before we can assume that the account is most likely automated? And more importantly, are bot accusations on social media at all a valid signal for the detection of bots? Our research presents the first large-scale study of bot accusations on Twitter and shows how the term bot became an instrument of dehumanization in social media conversations since it is predominantly used to deny the humanness of conversation partners. Consequently, bot accusations on social media should not be naively used as a signal to train or test bot detection models.