A recent study published online in Terrorism and Political Violence (Taylor&Francis) entitled "Automating Terror: The Role and Impact of Telegram Bots in the Islamic State's Online Ecosystem" sheds light on how the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group exploits bots on social media platforms like Telegram to coordinate sympathisers and amplify and automate the group's propaganda.
The findings of Abdullah Alrhmoun and Janos Kertesz, both from the Department of Data and Network Science at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Austria; and Charlie Winter from ExTrac in London, UK, indicate that IS employs bots as part of a deliberate and sophisticated strategy, in-keeping with its reputation as technologically forward-leaning. The research suggests that the labour-saving power of bots has been instrumental to growing and managing the large online community of IS sympathisers.
The researchers collected over 1.2 million data points - Telegram posts - and used different variations of community detection algorithms to map a sample of IS's Telegram network, and the bots within it. Such algorithms are able to identify related clusters of users and groups based on common subject matter and online behaviour.
In the context of social media, bots usually manifest as automated accounts that publish or reshare content. The team found that, within the IS Telegram community, bots performed three key functions: publishing and promoting IS content and propaganda; moderating discussions; and administering groups, like blocking violators of group policies and permitting new members to access.
The visualizations of the research illustrate both the placement of bots across IS' networks to regulate the movement of users and content between sub-communities, and the concentration of bots at the centre of the network, which push content and propaganda from the network core to its periphery. For IS, then, bots are an important enabler of their digital media strategy, whether in terms of automating the administration of its sympathiser community or amplifying the reach of its propaganda and influence campaigns. Bots effectively stand in for official IS operatives online, and connect sympathisers together based on common ideology, all while minimising the exposure of, and thus risks to, IS operatives themselves. Further investigations suggest that other violent extremist groups have adopted similar approaches.
Researchers conclude that both government security agencies and social media platforms should take note and explore what further steps could be taken to limit the use of bots as a tool of IS and other terrorist groups.
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