Thread by @ParagonSci_Inc

THREAD: New Twitter bot detection research on #Manafort / #Cohen debate. @MollyMcKew @tchambers @timkmak @ushadrons @conspirator0 @nickconfessore @d1gi @davidlazer @jabawack @benimmo @bpopken @profcarroll @shaneharris @rosenbergerlm @alexvespi @krisshaffer

TL-DR: Anti-Trump cyborgs dominate, but there is a concentrated, active group of pro-Trump bots and cyborgs. Most of the top cyborgs (14 out of the top 20) oppose Donald Trump while four support him, with two being not clearly aligned in either direction.

Interestingly, of the 253 likely bots and cyborgs who link to URLs external to twitter.com, the largest sub-group (community #13) consists of 62 predominantly right-wing bots/cyborgs that support Donald Trump.

We performed a follow-on set of Twitter queries for the 62 bots/cyborgs in Community 13 and obtained 183,525 tweets. This second network includes a tightly connected group of these user accounts who retweet and reply to each other.

The main network visualization is available on @polinode here: bit.ly/ManafortCohenB…. The Community 13 expanded network is here: bit.ly/Comm13Bots.

The spreadsheet containing these results is available on @datadotworld here: bit.ly/ManafortCohenB…. Reply here if you want to collaborate. @databrett @jonathonmorgan @jonloyens @bryonjacob @be3d @funnymonkey @data4democracy @dbryanjones @StandUpRepublic @Evan_McMullin

@dpatil I thought you'd also be interested in these results.

@20committee @renato_mariotti @fmanjoo @samthielman @davidfolkenflik @benimmo @mediatwit @ericgarland @markfollman @nickconfessore @SethAbramson @conspirator0 @NoahShachtman @mattzap @mims @cwarzel @b_fung @cstrohm @craigtimberg @dseetharaman @relucasz @jayrosen_nyu @daiwaka

@TONYROMM @jeremyherb @donie @samstein @ASLuhn @LawrenceA_UK @JoshMeyerDC @alexismadrigal @JessicaGKwong @joshrogin @zeynep @JRubinBlogger @kylegriffin1 @lorakolodny @JennaMC_Laugh @npfandos @noUpside @NatashaBertrand
@just_security @jonathanvswan @davidfolkenflik

For more information on our analysis approach, refer to our O'Reilly Data blog post, "Identifying viral bots and cyborgs in social media" (November 2017): oreil.ly/2hks9Vs. cc: @DzGuilbeault @craigtimberg @chrisalbon @NickSinai @nicknyhan @chris_bail

In Comm. 13, there are 13 bots that linked to rt.com. Note the articles critical of Mueller and Ambassador @McFaul. Viz: bit.ly/Comm13_RTbots @noUpside @josh_emerson @conspirator0 @ushadrons @profcarroll @d1gi @katestarbird @timkmak @benimmo @JuliaDavisNews

Thanks for helping to spread the word!