Regional patterns and networked behavior: interdisciplinary methods for identifying bots in the 2020 elections in Brazil

Authors

  • João Guilherme Bastos dos Santos Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Democracia Digital (INCT.DD)
  • Arthur Ituassu Departamento de Comunicação Social PUC-RJ
  • Sérgio Lifschitz Departamento de Informática PUC-RJ
  • Thayane Guimarães Universidade Federal Fluminense
  • Diego Cerqueira Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (PESC/COPPE)
  • Debora Albu London School of Economics
  • Redson Fernando Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade (ITS Rio)
  • Julia Hellen Ferreira Universidade Federal Fluminense
  • Maria Luiza Mondelli Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica
  • Yago Cury Departamento de Comunicação Social PUC-RJ

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5753/isys.2022.2415

Keywords:

Complex networks, Network science, Elections, Social bots

Abstract

To improve the detection of automated behavior on social networks in the Brazilian scenario, this work applies five methods of bot identification - analysis of (i) networks, (ii) sentiment, (iii) profile, (iv) temporal, and (v) crossing of these analyses - to find possible bots posting on the comments of tweets from candidates for the mayors' election in the capitals Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Recife, Porto Alegre and Fortaleza in 2020. After identification, we followed two strands of analysis (namely, network and lexical). We seek to better understand if there are different types of bots in each region, different network performances and vocabularies. Among the preliminary results obtained, we highlight the multiplicity of types of automation, understanding of regional variations and the role of bots in the Brazilian electoral scenario.

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References

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Published

2022-12-30

How to Cite

Bastos dos Santos, J. G. ., Ituassu, A., Lifschitz, S., Guimarães, T., Cerqueira, D., Albu, D., Fernando, R., Ferreira, J. H., Mondelli, M. L., & Cury, Y. (2022). Regional patterns and networked behavior: interdisciplinary methods for identifying bots in the 2020 elections in Brazil. ISys - Brazilian Journal of Information Systems, 15(1), 26:1–26:12. https://doi.org/10.5753/isys.2022.2415

Issue

Section

Extended versions of selected articles