{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,10]],"date-time":"2026-05-10T10:18:29Z","timestamp":1778408309430,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,30]],"date-time":"2021-08-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1630281600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,30]],"date-time":"2021-08-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1630281600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003382","name":"Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["JPMJCR17A4"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JPMJCR17A4"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003382","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001691","name":"Japan Society for the Promotion of Science","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["JP19H04217"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JP19H04217"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001691","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001691","name":"Japan Society for the Promotion of Science","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["JP17H06383 in #490"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JP17H06383 in #490"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001691","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Comput Soc Sc"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>An infodemic is an emerging phenomenon caused by an overabundance of information online. This proliferation of information makes it difficult for the public to distinguish trustworthy news and credible information from untrustworthy sites and non-credible sources. The perils of an infodemic debuted with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and bots (i.e., automated accounts controlled by a set of algorithms) that are suspected of spreading the infodemic. Although previous research has revealed that bots played a central role in spreading misinformation during major political events, how bots behavior during the infodemic is unclear. In this paper, we examined the roles of bots in the case of the COVID-19 infodemic and the diffusion of non-credible information such as \u201c5G\u201d and \u201cBill Gates\u201d conspiracy theories and content related to \u201cTrump\u201d and \u201cWHO\u201d by analyzing retweet networks and retweeted items. We show the segregated topology of their retweet networks, which indicates that right-wing self-media accounts and conspiracy theorists may lead to this opinion cleavage, while malicious bots might favor amplification of the diffusion of non-credible information. Although the basic influence of information diffusion could be larger in human users than bots, the effects of bots are non-negligible under an infodemic situation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s42001-021-00139-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,30]],"date-time":"2021-08-30T06:16:51Z","timestamp":1630304211000},"page":"591-609","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Characterizing the roles of bots\u00a0on Twitter during the COVID-19 infodemic"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9548-6378","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wentao","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kazutoshi","family":"Sasahara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"139_CR1","unstructured":"WHO. (2020). Munich Security Conference."},{"key":"139_CR2","unstructured":"Brennen, J. S., Simon, F. M., Howard, P. N., & Nielsen, R. K. (2020). Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation. Tech. rep."},{"key":"139_CR3","unstructured":"Politifact. (2020). Facts are under assault in 2020."},{"issue":"suppl 1","key":"139_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5261","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0307554100","volume":"101","author":"F Menczer","year":"2004","unstructured":"Menczer, F. (2004). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(suppl 1), 5261.","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"},{"issue":"2","key":"139_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1007\/s100510050359","volume":"4","author":"S Redner","year":"1998","unstructured":"Redner, S. (1998). The European Physical Journal B - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 4(2), 131.","journal-title":"The European Physical Journal B - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems"},{"key":"139_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Messias, J., Lucas, S., Ricardo, O., & Fabricio, B. (2013). You followed my bot! Transforming robots into influential users in Twitter.","DOI":"10.5210\/fm.v18i7.4217"},{"key":"139_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bessi, A., & Ferrara, E. (2016). Social bots distort the 2016 U.S. Presidential election online discussion.","DOI":"10.5210\/fm.v21i11.7090"},{"key":"139_CR8","unstructured":"Varol, O., Ferrara, E., Davis, C. A., Menczer, F., & Flammini, A. (2017). Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2017, pp. 280\u2013289."},{"key":"139_CR9","unstructured":"Pew Research Center (2018)."},{"key":"139_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ferrara, E. (2020). What types of COVID-19 conspiracies are populated by Twitter bots?","DOI":"10.5210\/fm.v25i6.10633"},{"key":"139_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shao, C., Ciampaglia, G. L., Varol, O., Yang, K. C., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2018). The spread of low-credibility content by social bots.","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-018-06930-7"},{"key":"139_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Keller, T. R., & Klinger, U. (2019). Social bots in election campaigns: theoretical, empirical, and methodological implications.","DOI":"10.1080\/10584609.2018.1526238"},{"key":"139_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Broniatowski, D. A., Jamison, A. M., Qi, S., AlKulaib, L., Chen, T., Benton, A., Quinn, S. C., & Dredze, M. (2018). Weaponized health communication: Twitter bots and Russian trolls amplify the vaccine debate.","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.2018.304567"},{"key":"139_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gallotti, R., Valle, F., Castaldo, N., Sacco, P., & De Domenico, M. (2020). Assessing the risks of \u2018infodemics\u2019 in response to COVID-19 epidemics.","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.04.08.20057968"},{"key":"139_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ferrara, E., Chang, H., Chen, E., Muric, G., & Patel, J. (2020). Characterizing social media manipulation in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.","DOI":"10.5210\/fm.v25i11.11431"},{"key":"139_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Uyheng, J., & Carley, K. M. (2020). Bots and online hate during the COVID-19 pandemic: case studies in the United States and the Philippines.","DOI":"10.1007\/s42001-020-00087-4"},{"key":"139_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Davis, C. A., Varol, O., Ferrara, E., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2016). Botornot: a system to evaluate social bots.","DOI":"10.1145\/2872518.2889302"},{"key":"139_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sayyadiharikandeh, M., Varol, O., Yang, K., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2020). Detection of novel social bots by ensembles of specialized classifiers.","DOI":"10.1145\/3340531.3412698"},{"key":"139_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online.","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aap9559"},{"key":"139_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boyd, D., Golder, S., & Lotan, G. (2010). Tweet, tweet, retweet: conversational aspects of retweeting on Twitter.","DOI":"10.1109\/HICSS.2010.412"},{"key":"139_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cha, M., Haddadi, H., Benevenuto, F., & Gummadi, K. (2010). Measuring user influence in Twitter: the million follower fallacy.","DOI":"10.1609\/icwsm.v4i1.14033"},{"key":"139_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Romero, D. M., Galuba, W., Asur, S., & Huberman, B. A. (2011). Influence and passivity in social media.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.1653135"},{"key":"139_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hong, L., Dan, O., & Davison, B. D. (2011). Predicting popular messages in Twitter.","DOI":"10.1145\/1963192.1963222"},{"key":"139_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Suh, B., Hong, L., Pirolli, P., & Chi, E. H. (2010). Want to be retweeted? Large scale analytics on factors impacting retweet in Twitter network.","DOI":"10.1109\/SocialCom.2010.33"},{"key":"139_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kwak, H., Lee, C., Park, H., & Moon, S. (2010). What is Twitter, a social network or a news media?","DOI":"10.1145\/1772690.1772751"},{"key":"139_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi, F. (2019). Understanding conspiracy theories.","DOI":"10.4324\/9780429203787-4"},{"key":"139_CR27","unstructured":"Temperton, J. (2020). How the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory tore through the internet \u2014 WIRED UK."},{"key":"139_CR28","unstructured":"Hamilton, I. A. (2020). 77 phone masts attacked in UK due to coronavirus 5G conspiracy theory - Business Insider."},{"key":"139_CR29","unstructured":"DisinfoLab, E. (2020). COVID-19 and 5G: a case study of platforms\u2019 content moderation of conspiracy theories."},{"key":"139_CR30","unstructured":"Ketchell, M. (2020). Coronavirus conspiracy theories are dangerous \u2018here\u2019s how to stop them spreading."},{"key":"139_CR31","unstructured":"Jack Goodman, F. C. (2020). Coronavirus: Bill Gates \u2018microchip\u2019 conspiracy theory and other vaccine claims fact-checked - BBC News."},{"key":"139_CR32","unstructured":"Jr., B. L. (2020). Bill Gates denies conspiracy theories that say he wants to use coronavirus vaccines to implant tracking devices."},{"key":"139_CR33","unstructured":"Romano, A. (2020). New Yahoo News\/YouGov poll shows coronavirus conspiracy theories spreading on the right may hamper vaccine efforts."},{"key":"139_CR34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Evanega, S., Lynas, M., Adams, J., & Smolenyak, K. (2020). Quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19 \u2018infodemic\u2019. Tech. rep., The Cornell Alliance for Science.","DOI":"10.2196\/preprints.25143"},{"key":"139_CR35","unstructured":"Zimdars, M. (2016). False, misleading, clickbait-y, and satirical \u2018News\u2019 sources."},{"key":"139_CR36","unstructured":"N\u00f8rregaard, J., Horne, B., & Adal\u0131, S. (2019). Nela-gt-2018: a large multi-labelled news dataset for the study of misinformation in news articles. In 13th International Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM; Conference date: 11-06-2019 Through 14-06-2019."},{"key":"139_CR37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bastian, M., Heymann, S., & Jacomy, M. (2009). Gephi: an open source software for exploring and manipulating networks.","DOI":"10.1609\/icwsm.v3i1.13937"},{"key":"139_CR38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jacomy, M., Venturini, T., Heymann, S., & Bastian, M. (2014). ForceAtlas2, a continuous graph layout algorithm for handy network visualization designed for the Gephi software.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0098679"},{"key":"139_CR39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sasahara, K. (2019). You are what you eat A social media study of food identity.","DOI":"10.1007\/s42001-019-00039-7"},{"key":"139_CR40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Conover, M. D., Gon\u00e7alves, B., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2012). Partisan asymmetries in online political activity.","DOI":"10.1140\/epjds6"},{"key":"139_CR41","unstructured":"BBC. (2018). UKIP aiming to be \u2018radical, populist\u2019 party - Gerard Batten - BBC News."},{"key":"139_CR42","unstructured":"Skynews. (2020). Who is David Icke? The conspiracy theorist who claims he is the son of God."},{"key":"139_CR43","unstructured":"UropeanConservative. (2020). David Kurten - European Conservative."},{"issue":"1","key":"139_CR44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"159","DOI":"10.2307\/2529310","volume":"33","author":"J. Richard Landis","year":"1977","unstructured":"J. Richard, Landis Gary G., Koch (1977). The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data. Biometrics 33(1) 159. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/2529310","journal-title":"Biometrics"}],"updated-by":[{"DOI":"10.1007\/s42001-021-00144-6","type":"correction","label":"Correction","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,2]],"date-time":"2021-09-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1630540800000}}],"container-title":["Journal of Computational Social Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00139-3.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00139-3\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00139-3.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,8]],"date-time":"2023-01-08T07:54:49Z","timestamp":1673164489000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00139-3"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,30]]},"references-count":44,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,5]]}},"alternative-id":["139"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00139-3","relation":{"correction":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1007\/s42001-021-00144-6","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2432-2717","2432-2725"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2432-2717","type":"print"},{"value":"2432-2725","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,30]]},"assertion":[{"value":"21 November 2020","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"18 August 2021","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"30 August 2021","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"2 September 2021","order":4,"name":"change_date","label":"Change Date","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"Correction","order":5,"name":"change_type","label":"Change Type","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"A Correction to this paper has been published:","order":6,"name":"change_details","label":"Change Details","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00144-6","URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s42001-021-00144-6","order":7,"name":"change_details","label":"Change Details","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Conflict of interest"}}]}}