This current U.S. presidential election race has proven to be one of the most contentious in American history, with the choice of the next POTUS being a woman in the form of Hillary Clinton and a businessman with no political experience in the form of Donald Trump. The campaign landscape on social media, which has never been that pleasant, to begin with, has been mired in pointless arguments and trolling. Now, it would seem that bots are being used to spread misinformation about this election, with Twitter being the main battleground.
According to the Technology Review publication by MIT, as many as 20 percent of the Tweets about this election are coming from bots instead of actual human users. This number comes from a study posted on First Monday, where researchers used algorithms specifically intended to track bots to find out just how far the mindless drones have invaded Twitter. As it turns out, they are really dug in deep.
The fact that bots are actually being used to supposedly weigh in on the political climate is bad enough, what with them being non-organic and can, therefore, Tweet all the day long, but a lot of them were found to be quite influential. This makes them potent weapons to distort facts during Election Day, potentially warping the results in favor of one candidate over the other.
The researchers have not been able to determine the origins of the bots nor could they determine who is creating them. Emilio Ferrara, one of the authors of the study spoke with Technology Review and revealed that they could find the bots and track their activities, but not those behind them.
For those wondering, bots favor both camps of this election, CBC reports. According to Phil Howard, an expert on bots from the Oxford Internet Institute, a third of the bots are in favor of Trump, while a quarter is playing for Clinton’s corner.


US Designates Brazil’s PCC and Comando Vermelho as Global Terrorist Entities Ahead of FTO Listing
Netanyahu Orders Expansion of Israeli Control in Gaza to 70%
Autodesk Beats Q1 Estimates, Acquires MaintainX for $3.6 Billion
PDG Explores $1 Billion Sale of China Data Center Assets
Kentucky School District Secures $27 Million in Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Settlements
Samsung to Invest $1.5 Billion in Vietnam Semiconductor Testing Plant by 2027
Brazil Struggles to Stop Illegal Amazon Gold Mining as Gold Prices Surge
HP Q2 2026 Earnings Beat Expectations Despite Memory Chip Pressure
US-Iran Ceasefire Extension Near as Strait of Hormuz Shipping Deal Advances
Mega IPOs Like SpaceX and OpenAI Could Reshape S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 Portfolios in 2026
China Expands Nuclear Defense Network in Remote Desert
U.S. Sanctions Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Authority as Global Oil Markets Face Turmoil
UN Blacklists Israel and Russia Over Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Claims
Trump Signs Executive Order to Expand Access to Federal Lands in the U.S.
SpaceX IPO Hype Raises Questions as Many Major Stock Debuts Underperform Market
Salesforce Q1 FY2027 Earnings Beat Expectations Despite Soft Q2 Revenue Outlook
Poland Considers Revoking Zelensky’s Top Honor Over Controversial UPA Army Unit Recognition




