Bots are disseminating much COVID-19 misinformation - study

Automated computer programs, or "bots," are spreading a lot of COVID-19 misinformation on social media, new research confirms.

Bots are easy to spot, said Dr. John Ayers of the University of California, Davis.

"You just look for coordinated behavior, like Facebook groups sharing the exact same content within seconds," he said.

The study analyzed 299,925 posts made to 563 Facebook groups, identifying groups that seemed especially susceptible to bot influence.

In these groups, identical links were shared at average intervals of 4.28 seconds, compared to 4.35 hours for groups least influenced by bots, the researchers reported on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Then they monitored posts sharing a link to a study in which masks were found to protect against COVID-19.

Where bots had the most influence, the posts sharing the trial were 2.3 times more likely to report false results and 2.5 times more likely to make conspiratorial claims than those showing up on groups least influenced by bots. Instead of zeroing in on bots, social media companies continue to evaluate whether individual posts contain misinformation, Ayers said.

"That's like playing 'Whac-A-Mole,'" he said, adding that bot-generated misinformation "could be undermining critical health institutions." -- Reuters