from the all-the-little-birdies-go-tweet-tweet-tweet dept.
New social media tools help public assess viral posts, check for bots:
The Observatory on Social Media, or OSoMe, at Indiana University has launched three new or revamped no-cost research tools to give journalists, other researchers and the public a broad view of what's happening on social media.
[...] "You often hear something is going viral, but how?" said Filippo Menczer, director of OSoMe and Luddy Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Informatics in the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering. "Our tools show you what the conversation is, who the players are, what the viral messages are, and you can even visualize polarization. It provides a place for exploration of topics and how they work together."
- The Networks Tool, which has recently been updated, creates an interactive map (now in 3D) to explore how information spreads across Twitter. Users can visualize who is retweeting or mentioning whom on a particular topic, or which hashtags are being used with other hashtags, and all data can now be exported. [...]
- The Trends Tool helps users analyze the volume of tweets within a given hashtag, URL or keyword over a given period of time. This tool shows which topics are trending and what is going viral. [...]
- The new BotAmp Tool enables users to pinpoint likely bot activity for tweets filtered by a search term. [...]
[...] OSoMe's tools leverage a huge stream of data -- roughly 50 million tweets a day -- collected from Twitter. It equates to roughly 10 percent of public tweets, which are then analyzed and indexed for use through these tools.
[...] "There's always a lot of debate about what's going on online," he said. "These tools are meant to help the public study these things and see for themselves."
(Score: 3, Informative) by AnonTechie on Monday August 01 2022, @08:17PM (1 child)
Just spent an hour or so trying these tools and they are really useful and interesting for us laymen, to analyse the trends of hashtags. Also, the network tool generates some cool graphics. I am sure this would be very useful to journalists and others who keep track of what is happening in the twitter world !! Kudos to Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University.
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday August 01 2022, @08:36PM
I don't twit so I'm not to sure how it will affect the twitter addicts. I looked to see if it was possible to use the Botometer here on SN.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Monday August 01 2022, @08:35PM (1 child)
So can these be used to declare a winner in the Musk vs Twitter battle of how many bots and shitposters there are on Twitter? Their sample size appears to be a lot larger then what Twitter themselves used when they came to their number, which Musk cast shade on.
I guess the main drawback to the tools (the bot one), which all seem very nice, is that they require that you login or already have a twitter account. So if you don't want to share, have one or want to sign up for one you are sort of out of luck. I guess if you are working with analyzing twitter traffic tho you'll have a couple of them to spare so no issue.
The network tools doesn't from what I can tell require a login. It produce some nifty looking network graphs and you can click and interact with it. Read the various posts and follow the chains of information. Still you have to be fairly specific in time and so or the graphs will just be to large to be useful.
The trend one doesn't require a login either. But same there, to generic searches (as always) generates weird and wonky results.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2022, @09:11PM
FYI in case you didn't see it (or for others who haven't looked), they do have a FAQ [iu.edu]: "Why do I have to log in using my Twitter account?":
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2022, @12:32AM
Current fortune is:
"There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk. -- Robert Heinlein"
From:
http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200408/The_Notebooks_of_Lazarus_Long.htm [baen.com]
...where there are a batch of similar one liners.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2022, @01:14AM (1 child)
Bots have never been SoylentNews' problem. Alt-right editors has been.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 02 2022, @08:07AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 02 2022, @11:16AM (1 child)
The good news is it makes it easier for us to figure out who the bots are.
The bad news is that it makes it easier for bot creators to refine and improve their bots so they don't get detected as easily.
That's why, for instance, search engines refuse to tell you exactly how their search algorithms work: If they do, the SEO spammers will now know exactly what to do to put their stuff at the top of Google.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday August 02 2022, @03:07PM
relevant XKCD [xkcd.com]
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr