Bots Activity Stable in Campaign Except for a Spike Around Blackface Scandal
Calgary, AB, October 4, 2019 — Bot activity on social media during Canada’s election campaign has been stable, except for a spike in activity around the release of pictures of Justin Trudeau in blackface on September 18 and 19.
Bot activity is measured by the Ipsos Canadian Political Atlas, and includes accounts that appear not to represent an actual user. Social media activity might be categorized as a bot due to a variety of indicators. For example: if the location of the account is clearly outside of Canada but representing itself as a voter within Canada, if the account has very few followers and has not existed for very long, or if the social media content is being posting to social media at a rapid rate, or at unexpected times of the day.
Bot Activity: Volume Since the Start of the Campaign
Bot activity per day has averaged around 11,000 total impressions. On September 19, at the height of the blackface scandal, it shot up to 20,000 impressions before quickly returning to the norm during the campaign.
Overall, regular users have been the most active on social media, representing 63% of activity. Influencers are next with 25%, followed by news media (8%). Bots represent only 5% of total activity.
Most bot activity has been about infrastructure, followed by trade, immigration and energy. The Liberal Party has had the most bot activity – both positive and negative, followed by the conservative party. Bot activity about the Liberals and Conservatives has been mostly negative, while bot activity about the NDP has been slightly more positive than negative.
These are findings from the Canadian Political Atlas, an online social media monitoring tool that measures sentiment and volume across each federal riding in Canada. The data are not representative of the Canadian population, and reflect only social media activity online. Data were collected between September 13 and October 1, 2019.
For more information on the Canadian Political Atlas, please contact:
Gregory Jack
Vice President, Ipsos Public Affairs
587-952-4868
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