ROBOTROLLING FAQ
ROBOTROLLING FAQ

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Media studies, Communication studies, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: media; communication; information; social media; robotic trolling; fake accounts; algorithm; bots;
Summary/Abstract: What is Robotic trolling? Robotic trolling or ‘robotrolling’ is the coordinated use of fake accounts on social media. It is important to note that the divide between a bot and genuine account, by which we mean human-controlled account, is not a clear-cut one. Bots should be thought of on a spectrum, from fully automated to varying degrees of partially automated accounts. Not all bots claim to be humans. We are especially interested in bots which impersonate people or rely on fake identities. Such accounts may be operated either by human-handlers, or by algorithm. It may be impossible to separate the two. As a result, we refer to bot-like activity, that is, activity that could be performed by a computer. Whether it is a human or an algorithm copy-pasting messages is not important for our purposes: in either case, it is an example of deception.

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