Molding public opinion is as old as politics. In recent years, as more and more Canadians are spending their time online, the process and methods used to influence public opinions have undergone some major changes. Most recently, these include the emergence of social bots and troll armies designed to shape public discourse. Their impact was felt in 2016 during the U.S. presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum. In both cases, social media platforms have emerged as an important avenue for disinformation operations and misinformation campaigns. Enabled by bots, trolls, and algorithm-driven filter bubbles, the weaponization of social media is undermining and weakening public trust in government institutions across the globe and threatening the future of democracy. Join us at the next TRSM Dean’s Speaker Series as we dive into the fascinating world of political bots and trolls in Canada with Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, Director of Research at Ryerson University Social Media Lab at TRSM. Dr. Gruzd will show how his lab uses publicly available social media data to show how misinformation spreads through online social networks on sites like Twitter and Facebook and recent discoveries about how bots and trolls are being injected into the conversation during the 2019 campaign. The event will be moderated by Tom Clark, Chairman, Global Public Affairs. Bios: Anatoliy Gruzd, PhD is a Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, and Director of Research at the Social Media Lab in Toronto, Canada. He is also a founding co-editor of a multidisciplinary journal on Big Data and Society. His work explores the inner workings of online communities, studying how people and organizations adapt to social media in various domains, and examining tensions between privacy and self-disclosure on social media networks. Tom Clark joined Global after almost 45 years at the most senior levels of Canadian journalism. Tom left Global News on January 1, 2017, after serving as the network’s chief political correspondent and host of The West Block. He has interviewed every Canadian Prime Minister since Lester B. Pearson and has covered every federal election campaign since 1974. He has reported in eight active war zones and from over 33 countries. Tom was CTV’s China Bureau Chief and was also its Chief Washington Correspondent for five years. He has a deep understanding of Canada’s position in an increasingly complicated international dynamic. Tom is the recipient of Radio Television Digital News Association lifetime achievement award and has been named one of the most influential journalists in Ottawa.

1. #FakeNews
Travels Fast —
How Social Bots
and Trolls Are
Reshaping
Public Debates
Anatoliy Gruzd
@Gruzd

2. NAME OR LOGO 2
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adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue
The Lab & The People “Making Sense of a Networked World”
The lab’s research seeks to
advance the public’s understanding
of the benefits and pitfalls of social
media adoption.
@SMLabTO

3. NAME OR LOGO 3
Barack Obama won
his 1st Presidency
@SMLabTO
2008

4. NAME OR LOGO 4
2011
Barack Obama won
his 1st Presidency
@SMLabTO
2008

5. NAME OR LOGO 5
2008
2011
2016
Social media is an
“existential threat to
democracy”
Barack Obama won
his 1st Presidency
@SMLabTO

6. NAME OR LOGO
The use of social media
during popular political
uprisings
Virtual No More
6@SMLabTO

7. NAME OR LOGO
2016 U.S. Presidential Election
Virtual No More
U.K.’s Brexit referendum
7

8. NAME OR LOGO
Misinformation
spreads like
wildfire
over social media
But this is not a bug. It’s a feature.
Image credit: Geralt 8@SMLabTO

9. Outline
9
Social Network Analysis 101
2016 US Presidential Election
2019 Canadian Federal
Election
#FakeNews Travels
Fast — How Social
Bots and Trolls Are
Reshaping Public
Debates

10. NAME OR LOGO
Why Study the
Spread of Misinformation
on Twitter?
○ The 4th most popular social media platform in Canada
○ Used by public figures, journalists and citizens
10@SMLabTO

11. NAME OR LOGO
○ Nearly 5M are interested in Canadian politics
Sources: Twitter’s Ads Platform; Polidashboard.ca
4.71M
users engaged
with #cdnpoli
~150K
users posted
with #cdnpoli
since July
2019
11@SMLabTO
Why Study the
Spread of Misinformation
on Twitter?

12. NAME OR LOGO
@John
@Marry
@Anne
Nodes = Twitter accounts
(person/org)
Network Ties = “Who
retweeted/ replied/mentioned
whom”
Tie strength = The number of
retweets (or replies or
mentions)
Using Social Network Analysis to Study the Spread of
Misinformation on Twitter
12@SMLabTO

13. NAME OR LOGO
Network Ties
Discovering a Network Structure
One Tweet at the time
@JustinTrudeau
@realDonaldTrump
@WhiteHouse
13@SMLabTO

14. NAME OR LOGO
Examples of Different Information Propagation Models on Twitter
14@SMLabTO

15. Outline
15
Social Network Analysis 101
2016 US Presidential Election
2019 Canadian Federal
Election
#FakeNews Travels
Fast — How Social
Bots and Trolls Are
Reshaping Public
Debates

16. NAME OR LOGO
2011 - 2018
3,836 IRA-associated accounts
9M tweets & RTs
https://about.twitter.com/en_us/values/elections-integrity.html#data
200k Tweets & RTs
Example of Election Interference Campaign on Twitter:
Russian Internet Research Agency / IRA accounts
16@SMLabTO

17. NAME OR LOGO
Activities of IRA
Twitter accounts
1 month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
17@SMLabTO

18. NAME OR LOGO
Example:
Source:https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald
Activities of IRA
Twitter accounts
1 month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
18
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
@SMLabTO

19. NAME OR LOGO
Activities of IRA
Twitter accounts
1 month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
19
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
@SMLabTO

20. NAME OR LOGO
pro-Trump and anti-Hillary cluster
Activities of
IRA Twitter
accounts 1
month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
20
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
@SMLabTO
pro-Trump and anti-Hillary cluster

21. NAME OR LOGO
#BlackLivesMatter cluster
Activities of
IRA Twitter
accounts 1
month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
21
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
@SMLabTO
#BlackLivesMatter cluster

22. NAME OR LOGO
Pro-Putin cluster
Activities of
IRA Twitter
accounts 1
month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
22
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
@SMLabTO

23. NAME OR LOGO
Sports & Entertainment cluster
Activities of
IRA Twitter
accounts 1
month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
23
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
Sports & Entertainment cluster

24. NAME OR LOGO
Activities of
IRA Twitter
accounts 1
month before
the 2016 U.S.
Presidential
Election
38,000 accounts
1% (381) IRA accounts
>200,000 tweets & RTs
24
Red nodes = known IRA accounts
@SMLabTO

25. Outline
25
Social Network Analysis 101
2016 US Presidential Election
2019 Canadian Federal
Election
#FakeNews Travels
Fast — How Social
Bots and Trolls Are
Reshaping Public
Debates

26. NAME OR LOGO
Canada is not
immune to
this
26@SMLabTO

27. NAME OR LOGO
Canada is not
immune to
this
The ‘State of Social Media’ report is avail. at
socialmedialab.ca
27
@SMLabTO

28. NAME OR LOGO
Pre-Writs … Fears of
Election Interference
28
Social Media Lab’s #ELXN43 Transparency Initiative
polidashboard.ca

29. NAME OR LOGO
Social Media Lab’s #ELXN43 Transparency Initiative
29
#CNDPoli Twitter
Module
Facebook Political
Ads Module
Focus of Today’s Presentation
polidashboard.ca

30. NAME OR LOGO
Deleted Content
1
Blacklist sites
2
Bots
3
Trolls
4
30polidashboard.ca
Main Features

31. NAME OR LOGO
General Stats and Deleted Accounts
31@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

32. NAME OR LOGO
Sample Content Shared by Suspended Users
Discrediting mainstream media Sharing misinformation
Posting far-right, anti-muslim content
32@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

33. NAME OR LOGO
Deleted Content
1
Blacklist sites
2
Bots
3
Trolls
4
33polidashboard.ca
Main Features

34. NAME OR LOGO
Link Sharing
Shared URLs
55-70% URLs to mainstream media
polidashboard.ca 34@SMLabTO

35. NAME OR LOGO
Link Sharing
Shared URLs
7-18% URLs to (hyper)partisan sites
35@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

36. NAME OR LOGO
Link Sharing
Shared URLs
<1% URLs to blacklisted sites
36@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

37. NAME OR LOGO
Link Sharing
Shared URLs
<1% URLs to blacklisted sites
37@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

38. NAME OR LOGO
Deleted Content
1
Blacklist sites
2
Bots
3
Trolls
4
38polidashboard.ca
Main Features

39. BotDetectionon
Twitter
39@SMLabTO

40. NAME OR LOGO
Sample Twitter Bots
40@SMLabTO
○ Social Bots – software designed to act on the Internet with some level of autonomy

41. NAME OR LOGO
“Bad” Bots
• Amplify/spread misinformation
• Expose private information
• Enlarge the audience
• Manipulate stock prices
• Influence public opinion
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/7/204021-the-rise-of-social-bots/fulltext
41@SMLabTO

42. NAME OR LOGO
Online Bot
Detection Tool
Bot or Not
42@SMLabTO

43. NAME OR LOGO
Active Users and Automation
43@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

44. NAME OR LOGO
2,419 tweets/RTs
4% probability of being automated
Examples: Active Users and Automation
640 tweets/RTs
64% probability of automation
44@SMLabTO polidashboard.ca

45. NAME OR LOGO
#CDNPoli Twitter Communication Network|Sep 12-15, 2019
node color = likelihood of automation (from green to red)

46. NAME OR LOGO 46@SMLabTO
2016 IRA/Pro-Putin cluster2019 #CndPoli
- Bots are dispersed across the network
- No appearance of coordinated efforts
- Bots are clustered around a group of accounts
- A sign of coordination

47. NAME OR LOGO
Frequently mentioned words in
user profiles of likely bots
47@SMLabTO

48. NAME OR LOGO
Deleted Content
1
Blacklist sites
2
Bots
3
Trolls
4
48polidashboard.ca
Main Features

49. Trolls-R-US:
WhoareInternetTrolls&
HowtoSpotThem
49@SMLabTO

50. NAME OR LOGO50
• Trolling is defined as
“an insulting, bullying, and
deliberate behavior, designed to
provoke a reaction which has
significant emotive effects”
Who are Internet Trolls?
(March & Marrington, 2019)
0 50 100 150
Comments
Arguments
Bullying
Harassment
Insulting
What behaviors consitute
Internet Trolling?
50@SMLabTO

51. NAME OR LOGO
Sample Trolling Behavior
POST
52
REPLY
Sample tweet attacking
Jagmeet Singh
@SMLabTO

52. NAME OR LOGO
POST
53
REPLY
A negative tie
@SMLabTO
Using a Toxicity Analysis to Discover Trolling Behavior

53. NAME OR LOGO
Tweets from/to a
Group of Candidates
54@SMLabTO

54. NAME OR LOGO
Candidates as
Toxicity “Magnets”
The National Citizens Alliance of
Canada (NCA) led by Stephen J
Garvey is an officially registered
federal party.
55@SMLabTO

55. NAME OR LOGO
Sample Tweets
Targeting the National
Citizens Alliance (NCA)
Candidate
“ ”you’re a disgusting
piece of sh*t.
“ ”you're a racist little
bitch and u ugly as
f*ck.
“ ”you are a horrible
piece of sh*t.
56@SMLabTO

56. NAME OR LOGO
Liberal Party candidate
running for re-election in Halifax
57@SMLabTO

57. NAME OR LOGO 58
2011
Social media is an
“existential threat to
democracy”
Barack Obama won
his 1st Presidency
@SMLabTO
2008 2016
Recap

58. NAME OR LOGO 59
2008
2011
2016
2019
RecapSocial media is an
“existential threat to
democracy”
Barack Obama won
his 1st Presidency
The presence of
bots and the
proliferation of
toxic exchanges
@SMLabTO

59. Where do
we go from
here?
60@SMLabTO

60. NAME OR LOGO
Where do we go from here?
2. Policy
61
1. Technology 3. Education
Multi-stakeholder approach to …
@SMLabTO

61. #FakeNews
Travels Fast —
How Social Bots
and Trolls Are
Reshaping
Public Debates
Anatoliy Gruzd Tom Clark