Bots in social media: realities and prospects for the election campaigns in Ukraine

Abstract

The use of social media is an important component of political campaigning. But at the same time, it can be a source of some risks, such as bots’ functioning. The article demonstrates that the latter poses significant problems for the Ukrainian political sphere. Since bots are most often used to spread disinformation (or fakes), distort public opinion, create the illusion of massive voter support for certain political forces (or their representatives), make it difficult for political competitors to communicate with supporters, etc. The article covers some examples of this phenomenon in pre-election campaigns, both in parliamentary and local elections in Ukraine. This is an additional confirmation of the prevalence of bots at various levels of competition between political forces for election victory. It has been determined that the joint work of the governments of countries, intergovernmental bodies, companies that own social media, and relevant scientists are necessary to find an effective solution to the problem of this destructive influence. The most common signs of bots were also outlined (the presence of a fake photo in the account; the absence of personal information, a valid name, friends (or a small number of them – in case this information is made public); anomalous activity manifested in the distribution of other people’s content, publication of the same type content (texts, photos, videos, graphics or drawings, etc.), and prospects for use in future election campaigns. Social media users’ behavior is also analyzed in the article.
Another direction in the development and use of bots, which does not foresee negative consequences, but on the contrary allows optimizing and structuring work, speeding up communication with voters, exercising more effective control over compliance with election legislation, and quickly reducing the scale of violations is highlighted in the article. Examples of their application by some political parties in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are included.