According to a study by FGV/DAPP, about 20% of discussions about politics on social networks in Brazil are instigated by bots.

 

These malicious political bots impersonate real users, posting and interacting profusely with tweets that further their causes, thereby creating an artificial engagement.

 

This act ensures that a specific subject – often supported by fake news – reaches a growing number of people and gains relevance.

 

That’s why Congresso em Foco – one of Brazil’s most influential political journals – by mixing an algorithm with Twitter Streaming API, developed a platform in which users could use a daily basis to follow and compare the candidates and political subjects most mentioned on Twitter by those bots until election day.

 

The platform searched tweets in real time and conducted daily analyses of the primary data collected, investigating more than 132 million tweets. It found over 173,000 suspect accounts that posted in excess of 4.5 million tweets.

 

The president-elect – coincidently or not – was the candidate most mentioned by the bots that were identified, in more than 3.1 million tweets.

 

And the activity of such bots and fake profiles – also coincidentally or not – has dropped sharply since the end of the election.