Robot Twitter accounts used in #NDZ camp

Bots were used to amplify ‘likes’

THE DEBATE on social media last year about the ANC leadership race was, to a small extent, promoted by bots, a report by the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL) of US think tank Atlantic Council said.

Weekend Argus has learnt that in the build-up to the ANC’s 54th national conference at which Ramaphosa was elected as the new leader on December 18, certain Twitter accounts were used to amplify tweets on either side of the leadership race.

Ramaphosa, whose campaign was tagged #CR17, won 51.9% of votes, beating Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, whose campaign was tagged #NDZ.

The revelation of the use of Twitter bots in the leadership contest has led to concern about the effect of automated social media accounts when the country goes to the polls next year. According to defence senior fellow at the DFRL, Ben Nimmo, bots were used to retweet posts in favour of Dlamini Zuma and to oppose Ramaphosa.

“It looks like the bot activity was aimed at amplifying messages supporting Dlamini Zuma and attacking Ramaphosa,” Nimmo said.

A bot is a social media account run by a computer programme, Nimmo said.

“It can post likes, share other people’s posts, or follow other accounts without any human intervention,” he said, adding, “that means that it never has to take a break or go off-line, and the most prolific bots I know post over 1 000 times a day”.

Nimmo said between December 1 and 12 he conducted a series of machine scans on the hashtags #CR17 and #NDZ.

“The scans showed the most retweeted posts which used each hashtag.

“One high- performing tweet ( 355 retweets) had been shared by hundreds of accounts which looked American, rather than South African, judging by their names, profile pictures and biographies, and the retweets came suspiciously quickly,” he said.

“When I looked more closely, it became apparent that all the accounts had stolen real users’ profile pic- tures and bios, and copied their user names as closely as possible: for example, one bot was called @AshDeCar0, and it was a copy of an account called @AshDeCaro. This was an unusually well-disguised botnet,” Nimmo said.

He said some bot accounts amplified posts from one account, @Adamitv. One of this account’s most retweeted posts reflected support for Dlamini Zuma, and concerned her “selflessness” and “dedication” to radical economic transformation (#RET).

This is not the first bot activity that has come into the spotlight in South Africa.

Between 2016 and last year disgraced UK public relations firm Bell Pottinger, in its work for Oakbay Investments, one of the companies owned by the controversial Gupta family, reportedly used bots to manipulate public opinion.

Nimmo said while the impact of bot activity during the ANC leadership race was limited, the evidence of their use itself should be a warning.

“These bots are relatively skilfully made, and have lasted an unusually long time – probably because of their low posting rates and the way in which they stole real user profiles,” he said.

ANC spokesman Pule Mabe did not respond to questions at the time of going to print.

‘It became

stolen real users’

profiles… bios’