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We decided to take a look at the present state of #FBR for signs of automation. To this end, we downloaded tweets containing #FBR, yielding 73783 tweets from 20678 accounts over the last 10 days, and checked for use of automation services and custom apps.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
Of these 73783 tweets, 3427 (4.6%) were posted using automation services or custom apps by 217 accounts. All of this traffic is automated, but these accounts aren't necessarily all bots; some are likely human-operated with occasion tweets from apps they've enabled.
Checking that set of 217 accounts for round-the-clock tweeting/90%+ of tweets being posted via apps/automation services yields 117 bots, responsible for 2555 tweets. The bots on average have 19 #FBR tweets in their most recent 3200 tweets, compared to 3.5 for the other accounts.
This plot shows the number of followers versus number of accounts followed for each bot. The concentrated diagonal line indicates the accounts in that group are indeed following and successfully being followed back.
There's some variety to the #FBR-tweeting bots in terms of the appearance of the accounts - here are a couple of examples along with their tweet schedules.
One final note: a group of bots we've previously encountered showed up again in this set due to retweeting #FBR tweets.
