Boston University Libraries OpenBU
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    •   OpenBU
    • BU Open Access Articles
    • BU Open Access Articles
    • View Item
    •   OpenBU
    • BU Open Access Articles
    • BU Open Access Articles
    • View Item

    Who let the trolls out? Towards understanding state-sponsored trolls

    Thumbnail
    Date Issued
    2019-06-22
    Publisher Version
    10.1145/3292522.3326016
    Author(s)
    Zannettou, Savvas
    Caulfield, Tristan
    Sirivianos, Michael
    Stringhini, Gianluca
    Blackburn, Jeremy
    Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare by Email
    Export Citation
    Download to BibTex
    Download to EndNote/RefMan (RIS)
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Permanent Link
    https://hdl.handle.net/2144/40069
    OA Version
    Accepted manuscript
    Citation (published version)
    Savvas Zannettou, Tristan Caulfield, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, Jeremy Blackburn. 2019. "Who Let The Trolls Out? Towards Understanding State-Sponsored Trolls." ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci). http://doi.org/10.1145/3292522.3326016
    Abstract
    Recent evidence has emerged linking coordinated campaigns by state-sponsored actors to manipulate public opinion on the Web. Campaigns revolving around major political events are enacted via mission-focused ?trolls." While trolls are involved in spreading disinformation on social media, there is little understanding of how they operate, what type of content they disseminate, how their strategies evolve over time, and how they influence the Web's in- formation ecosystem. In this paper, we begin to address this gap by analyzing 10M posts by 5.5K Twitter and Reddit users identified as Russian and Iranian state-sponsored trolls. We compare the behavior of each group of state-sponsored trolls with a focus on how their strategies change over time, the different campaigns they embark on, and differences between the trolls operated by Russia and Iran. Among other things, we find: 1) that Russian trolls were pro-Trump while Iranian trolls were anti-Trump; 2) evidence that campaigns undertaken by such actors are influenced by real-world events; and 3) that the behavior of such actors is not consistent over time, hence detection is not straightforward. Using Hawkes Processes, we quantify the influence these accounts have on pushing URLs on four platforms: Twitter, Reddit, 4chan's Politically Incorrect board (/pol/), and Gab. In general, Russian trolls were more influential and efficient in pushing URLs to all the other platforms with the exception of /pol/ where Iranians were more influential. Finally, we release our source code to ensure the reproducibility of our results and to encourage other researchers to work on understanding other emerging kinds of state-sponsored troll accounts on Twitter.
    Collections
    • ENG: Electrical and Computer Engineering: Scholarly Papers [376]
    • BU Open Access Articles [4757]


    Boston University
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Help
     

     

    Browse

    All of OpenBUCommunities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    Deposit Materials

    LoginNon-BU Registration

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Boston University
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Help