1.
Background

2.
Step 1: Drawing a Sample

3.
Keyword extraction with chi-squared criterion
active
accounts keywords top accounts tag
2015
e3, stream, xd, e32019, nintendo, twitch, game, crossing, pc, zelda, animal, gameplay, cyberpunk2077,
games, switch, xbox, trailer, cyberpunk, gaming, xboxe3, uff, nice, awesome, keanu, pk, live, nen, lol,
mega
unge, dagibee, Gronkh, MelinaSophie, LeFloid,
iBlali, Taddl, rewinside, HandIOfIBlood, PietSmiet
YouTubers &
Gaming
1855
berlin, innen (female suffix), spd (German party), berliner, study, companies, discuss, cdu (party),
demand, topics, important, federal government, german, digitisation, topic, has been, annefrank,
climate protection, more, june, shows, germany, interview, politics, brandenburg
tazgezwitscher, Die_Gruenen, Tagesspiegel,
c_lindner, gutjahr, dunjahayali, sigmargabriel,
sixtus, HeikoMaas, spdde German politics
1414
women’s strike, switzerland, swiss people, glarner, svp (Swiss party), bern, women’s strike2019, zurich,
canton, grand, basel, national council, women
NZZ, 20min, viktorgiacobbo, Blickch,
tagesanzeiger, srfnews, MikeMuellerLate,
watson_news, migros, srf3
Swiss politics /
women's strike
1044
season, trainer, bundesliga, new arrival, player, dfb, fc, gerest, em, exchanges, estonia, exchange,
transfer, goal, victory, team, wm, cup, liga
DFB_Team, FCBayern, ToniKroos, MarioGoetze,
esmuellert_, Podolski10, Manuel_Neuer,
Bundesliga_DE, ZDFsport, JB17Official German football
767
övp (Austrian party), spö (Austrian party), fpö (Austrian party), vienna, austria, bierlein, oenr,
austria‘s, ibiza, viennese, strache, kickl, turquoise, hofer, parliament, national council, zib2, abdullah,
mandate, election campaign, centre, chancellor (female form), heinz, austrian, glyphosate, proposal,
blue
florianklenk, sebastiankurz, IngridThurnher,
kesslermichael, HannoSettele, vanderbellen,
Gawhary, HBrandstaetter, HHumorlos,
michelreimon Austrian politics
376
dessau, roßlau, afd (German (far-)right-wing party), görlitz, islam, raped, migrants, asylum seeker,
dangerous person, rejected person, sed, wippel, patriots, greta, niger, hosni, strongest, green,
fridayforfuture, african, rosslau, left, gretathunberg, crime, old parties, merkel, radical left, greens,
habeck, keep silent, tear apart, vote, girl, refugee, saxony, rape, maas, citizen, islamistic, sexual
DonJoschi, AfD, MSF_austria, Alice_Weidel,
SteinbachErika, Joerg_Meuthen, Beatrix_vStorch,
GrumpyMerkel, krone_at
hard right /
xenophobia /
migration /
refugees

4.
Step 3: Rate suspected Bots with a
human rater

5.
Example Accounts
Bots posting images / quotes

6.
Example Accounts
Follow Back Bots

7.
Example Accounts
Content Linking / Own Website Linking

8.
Spam / Possibly Malign

9.
Conclusion
● Prevalence of (suspected) bot accounts in line with prior analyses 1
● Low centrality of automated accounts (usually outside central clusters)
● Bots are primarily located outside of politics and news clusters
● Botometer: false-positive rate higher than selected threshold (63% vs. 75% set
threshold) according to human ratings
● But: good approach to inductively explore bot-categories and test bot-detection
methods
Overall, the negative impact of automated accounts seems rather low in our
sample.
1
Varol, O., Ferrara, E., Davis, C. A., Menczer, F., & Flammini, A. (2017). Online Human-Bot Interactions: Detection,
Estimation, and Characterization. In International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. Retrieved from
https://aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM17/paper/view/15587/14817