New research from Edinburgh University has found that posts on Twitter by celebrities and influencers have more impact on users’ views than bots.

Messages on divisive issues such as Brexit, immigration or climate shared by people with over 10,000 followers have the greatest influence on the opinions of other users, researchers said.

While previous research has explored how automated accounts help spread misinformation and harmful content, few studies have explored if posts shared by bots have any real impacts on other users’ perspectives.

For example, pre-pandemic, one study warned that around 25% of all tweets posted on Twitter about climate crisis on an average day were made by automated Twitter bots. With the majority of the bots posting climate science denial, the research warned that their activity impacted the online discussion about the subject.

The new study analysed how bots affect users’ views on seven contentious topics. The report collated data from more than 4,000 Twitter users, expressing views on each topic. These were used to study direct and indirect interactions with over 19 million other accounts, including bots.

The effect bots have on behaviours that shape users’ views – such as likes, retweets or comments on posts – was then compared with other account types, such as those held by influencers and famous people.

Bots were found to have very limited relation to users’ stance on different topics. On average, they made up less than 10% of the accounts that had direct or indirect impacts on users’ opinions.

However, celebrities profiles with more than 10,000 followers, on average, made up more than half of accounts affecting Twitter users’ views. This rose to over 70% when people’s views were shaped by exposure to negative messages on topics by influencers on social media.

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According to Dr Walid Magdy from the university’s School of Informatics: “Millions of people rely on social media as their main news source, which means that information they see there can have a major bearing on the views they hold.

“Our study suggests that fears of bots spreading harmful messages on social media might be overrated. Our findings show that influencers and celebrities have the most impact on opinions, not bots.

“This is the case for various topics, and may also apply to current concerns about bots that spread Covid-19 conspiracy theories and views opposing vaccines.”

The role social media plays in spreading misinformation has become a major concern since the spread of coronavirus and the January 6th Capitol attack. One studied warned that people who get their information on Covid-19 from social media are more likely to believe pandemic-related conspiracy theories and break lockdown rules.

As such, tracking how people are influenced has become vital to understanding and stopping fake news.

Twitter previously took action against misinformation by adding a function to report it.

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