IU professor develops technology that instantly detects fake accounts used to manipulate public opinion
BotSlayer is the Observatory on Social Media’s newest tool in the ongoing struggle against the use of bots to spread misinformation online. The beta version was used by major news and political organizations to monitor possible election interference in the U.S.
“We developed BotSlayer to make it easier for journalists and political campaigns to monitor potential new disinformation campaigns that attempt to manipulate public opinion using bots,” said Filippo Menczer, a professor in the IU School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, and director of the Observatory on Social Media.
BotSlayer allows anyone to scan and explore tweets directly from Twitter on specific topics of interest. It’s possible to see immediately when bots work in a coordinated way to push out messages—a practice known as “astroturfing” because it mimics authentic grassroots activity.
The BotSlayer tool is free and available to the public.
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