Theory, Methods, and Empirical Analysis of Internet Bots

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One of the most pressing challenges we face today is online hacking of communications by adversaries, including foreign adversaries. Non-human actors on social media platforms, that is accounts controlled by computer algorithms and colloquially known as Internet bots, are also playing an important part in this process. This project will conduct a major investigation of the role of Internet bots in public communications and political discussion. The project will have wide benefit for understanding how bots play a role in opinion and public policy.The goal of this proposal therefore is to support the development of a theoretical framework for understanding the role of domestic and foreign non-human actors in online communications and conversation, methodological tools for both identifying bots and tracking their activity, and empirical analyses that test hypotheses from the researchers' theoretical framework using a unique collection of historical data. Theoretically, the project will develop a two-part framework that can be applied to both domestic and foreign adversaries. Methodologically, the researchers will build off of previous methods they have developed for identifying bots in one particular time and place to produce general methods for identifying bots in different times and places; we will also develop and verify new (and test existing) methods for tracking bot activity of the type their theories predict, and attempting to influence search engines and social media communications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.