Automatic bot detection in social networks: a case study in the second round of the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections

Abstract

Social bots are automated users who use social networks and messaging applications to interact with real users. These bots can be used for sharing important news such as weather information or in emergency situations. However, they can also be used for malicious purposes, such as spreading fake news. This paper presents a case study on bot penetration in electoral discussions during the second round of the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections. It was found that the number of bots participating in the electoral discussions may have exceeded 10% of the total users. The use of general user account characteristics proved to be very speci c in identifying humans (it is estimated that over 97% of human users were correctly classified as humans), but bot recalls did not exceed 52.3%.

Keywords

• bot identification
• social networks
• social network analysis