IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2017 - 10

The Conversation for their editorial
support, and Christiane Barro from
Monash University for the inspiration
to write the piece. Dr. Roba Abbas
was also responsible for integrating
the last draft with earlier work.

References
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[4] D. Guilbeault and S.C. Woolley, "How
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[5] K. Hammond, "What is artificial intelli-
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[6] The LifeNaut Project, "Bina 48 meets
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[12] I. Lapowsky, "Brexit is sending mar-
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FIguRE 5. Twitter image taken from [42].

likely that bots were used to censor
messages containing key terms that
matched a list of banned words. Typi-
cally, this might have included words
in Mandarin such as "Tibet," "Falun
Gong," and "democracy" [48].
China employs a classic hybrid
mo del of online propaganda that
comes into action only after some peri-
od of social unrest or protest when
there is a surge in message volumes.
Typically, the task is left to government
officials to do the primary messag-
ing, with back up support from bots,
methodically spreading messages of
positivity and ensuring political securi-
ty using pro-government cheerleading.
While on average it is believed that one
in every 178 posts is curated for pro-
paganda purposes, the posts are not
continuous and appear to overwhelm
dissent only at key times [49]. Distrac-
tion online, it seems, is the best way to
overcome opposition. That distraction
is carried out in conjunction with mak-
ing sure there is a cap on the number
of messages that can be sent from
"public accounts" that have broadcast-
ing capabilities.

What Effect are Bots
Having on Society?
The deliberate act of spreading false-
hoods via the Internet, and more spe-
cifically via social media, to make
people believe something that is
not true is certainly a form of propa-

10

ganda. While it might create short-
term gains in the eyes of political
leaders, it inevitably causes signifi-
cant public distrust in the long term.
In many ways, it is a denial of citizen
service that attacks fundamental
human rights. It preys on the premise
that most citizens in society are like
sheep, a game of "follow the leader"
ensues, making a mockery of the
"right to know." We are using faulty
data to come to phony conclusions,
to cast our votes and decide our
futures. Disinformation on the Inter-
net is now rife - and if the Internet has
become our primary source of truth,
then we might well believe anything.

Author Information
Katina Michael is professor at the
Faculty of Engineering and Informa-
tion Sciences at the University of
Wollongong, Australia. Email: katina
@uow.edu.au.

Acknowledgment
This article is adapted from an arti-
cle published in The Conversation
titled "Bots without borders: how
anonymous accounts hijack politi-
cal debate," on January 24, 2017.
Read the original article http://
theconversation.com/bots-without-
borders-how-anonymous-accounts-
hijack-political-debate-70347. Katina
Michael would like to thank Michael
Courts and Amanda Dunn from
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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june 2017

http://http:// http://www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/ http://www.slate.com/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ https://www.theatlantic http://www http://www.computerworld.com/article/2906336/ https://www http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5IqcRILeCc https://www http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2016/05/beyond https://www http://www.britannica.com/technology/Turing-test http://uow.edu.au http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/ http://politicalbots https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602817/ http://http:// http://www.theconversation.com/bots-without https://www.wired

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