Amelia M. Jamison is with the Center for Health Equity, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park. David A. Broniatowski is with the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Sandra Crouse Quinn is with the Department of Family Science and the Center for Health Equity, School of Public Health, University of Maryland.
Am J Public Health. 2019 May;109(5):688-692. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.304969. Epub 2019 Mar 21.
Social bots and other malicious actors have a significant presence on Twitter. It is increasingly clear that some of their activities can have a negative impact on public health. This guide provides an overview of the types of malicious actors currently active on Twitter by highlighting the characteristic behaviors and strategies employed. It covers both automated accounts (including traditional spambots, social spambots, content polluters, and fake followers) and human users (primarily trolls). It also addresses the unique threat of state-sponsored trolls. We utilize examples from our own research on vaccination to illustrate. The diversity of malicious actors and their multifarious goals adds complexity to research efforts that use Twitter. Bots are now part of the social media landscape, and although it may not be possible to stop their influence, it is vital that public health researchers and practitioners recognize the potential harms and develop strategies to address bot- and troll-driven messages.
社交媒体机器人和其他恶意行为者在 Twitter 上大量存在。越来越明显的是，他们的一些活动可能会对公共健康产生负面影响。本指南通过突出显示当前在 Twitter 上活跃的恶意行为者的特征行为和策略，提供了对这些行为者类型的概述。它涵盖了自动账户（包括传统垃圾邮件机器人、社交垃圾邮件机器人、内容污染者和虚假关注者）和人类用户（主要是喷子）。它还解决了国家支持的喷子的独特威胁。我们利用自己在疫苗接种研究中的例子来说明。恶意行为者的多样性及其多种多样的目标增加了使用 Twitter 进行研究的复杂性。机器人现在已经成为社交媒体景观的一部分，尽管可能无法阻止他们的影响，但公共卫生研究人员和从业者必须认识到潜在的危害，并制定策略来解决由机器人和喷子驱动的信息。
