Social bots weaken activist cohesion

Recent research indicates that social bots significantly undermine human network cohesion within activist movements. By analyzing retweet networks during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, it was found that increased exposure to bots during protest peaks predicted subsequent declines in network cohesion at both individual and community levels.

Why it matters

This research highlights a previously underexplored impact of social bots, shifting focus from content manipulation to structural network degradation. Understanding this mechanism is crucial for anticipating challenges in organizing and sustaining collective action, as well as for developing countermeasures against digital interference in social and political spheres.

Key insights

• Social bots constitute a notable proportion of online political communication, often studied for misinformation dissemination and content amplification.
• The study investigates whether bot presence reshapes the human relationships that sustain social movements.
• Exposure to social bots during the peak of protest activity is linked to a subsequent erosion of cohesion in human networks.
• Analysis of retweet networks of core participants in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests demonstrated a decline in cohesion.
• Cohesion was measured through triadic closure in individual ego networks and edge density within detected communities.
• Higher bot exposure during protest peaks predicted steeper subsequent declines in human network cohesion at both micro (individual) and macro (community) scales.

Source

arXiv — Computers and Society — https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00197