For the second time, we captured 24 hours' worth of tweets containing coronavirus/COVID-19 (and variations.) Traffic has more than quadrupled relative to two weeks ago to 1477082 tweets, a whopping 206297 of which (14%) are automated.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
(previous #coronavirus thread from February 29th with some observations on automation)
The presence of automation is particularly notable among the most prolific accounts. 157 accounts tweeted about #coronavirus at least 100 times during the 24 hour period in question, 126 of which (80.3%) are automated.
Some of the high volume automated accounts tweeting about #coronavirus/#COVID19 are simply spammy news feeds. We noticed another common pattern of behavior, however: accounts exploiting the coronavirus crisis for profit or clout. Here are a few examples. . . #coronagrift
First up, we have @Only_rock_radio, which managed an astounding 1102 automated #covid19 tweets in 24 hours. They don't have anything to do with the disease, however - the bot is attaching the phrase "The best way to fight #covid19" to tweets promoting a streaming music site.
Next, we have #resistance spambot @TomthunkitsMind, which is now selling a $9.99 ebook on #coronavirus on Amazon, and posted 66 automated tweets promoting it in 24 hours. Given @TomthunkitsMind's history of tweeting disinformation about coronavirus, we'll pass on this purchase.
Another interesting example: @NovelCoronaBot. This one largely tweets statistics about #coronavirus, but we believe its actual mission is to promote the website linked in the tweets urging people to convert their 401Ks to #gold or #bitcoin.
How common is the use of automated #coronavirus tweets for self-promotion or profit? At least 30.6% of the automated coronavirus tweets with links promote one of:
- sites unrelated to the virus
- sites selling dubious coronavirus-related products
- donation sites (gofundme etc)
- sites unrelated to the virus
- sites selling dubious coronavirus-related products
- donation sites (gofundme etc)
Touching briefly on the high volume newsbots, we've seen some of them before. Hi, @commonpatriot (176 coronavirus tweets in 24 hours), @Chris_1791 (142), and @aiiamericangiri (133)!
Clarification - the chart shown here includes ALL of the accounts with at least 100 original coronavirus tweets in 24 hours, not just the grifty ones.
Also, this analysis is limited to English tweets only and excludes retweets (this is stated in some of the figures.)
