Agent Based Simulation of Bot Disinformation Maneuvers in Twitter

Abstract

Multiple state and non-state actors have recently used social media to conduct targeted disinformation operations for political effect. Even in the wake of these attacks, researchers struggle to fully understand these operations and more importantly measure their effect. The existing research is complicated by the fact that modeling and measuring a persons beliefs is difficult, and manipulating these beliefs in experimental settings is not morally permissible. Given these constraints, our team designed an Agent Based Model that is designed to allow researchers to explore various disinformation forms of maneuver in a virtual environment. This model mirrors the Twitter Social Media Environment and is grounded in social influence theory. Having built this model, we demonstrate its use in exploring two disinformation forms of maneuver: 1) "backing" key influencers and 2) "bridging" two communities.