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doi: 10.1145/3292522.3326016 , 10.5281/zenodo.2558560 , 10.5281/zenodo.2558559 , 10.48550/arxiv.1811.03130
arXiv: 1811.03130
handle: 20.500.14279/15778
doi: 10.1145/3292522.3326016 , 10.5281/zenodo.2558560 , 10.5281/zenodo.2558559 , 10.48550/arxiv.1811.03130
arXiv: 1811.03130
handle: 20.500.14279/15778
Over the past few years, extensive anecdotal evidence emerged that suggests the involvement of state-sponsored actors (or “trolls”) in online political campaigns with the goal to manipulate public opinion and sow discord. Recently, Twitter and Reddit released ground truth data about Russian and Iranian state-sponsored actors that were active on their platforms. In this paper, we analyze these ground truth datasets across several axes to understand how these actors operate, how they evolve over time, who are their targets, how their strategies changed over time, and what is their influence to the Web’s information ecosystem. Among other things we find: a) campaigns of these actors were influenced by real-world events; b) these actors were employing different tactics and had different targets over time, thus their automated detection is not straightforward; and c) Russian trolls were clearly pro-Trump, whereas Iranian trolls were anti-Trump. Finally, using Hawkes Processes, we quantified the influence that these actors had to four Web communities: Reddit, Twitter, 4chan’s Politically Incorrect board (/pol/), and Gab, finding that Russian trolls were more influential than Iranians with the exception of /pol/
Social and Information Networks (cs.SI), FOS: Computer and information sciences, Computer Science - Computers and Society, Equity crowdfunding, Computers and Society (cs.CY), Investing, Engineering and Technology, Computer Science - Social and Information Networks, Electrical Engineering - Electronic Engineering - Information Engineering
Social and Information Networks (cs.SI), FOS: Computer and information sciences, Computer Science - Computers and Society, Equity crowdfunding, Computers and Society (cs.CY), Investing, Engineering and Technology, Computer Science - Social and Information Networks, Electrical Engineering - Electronic Engineering - Information Engineering
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 103 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% |
| views | 18 | |
| downloads | 20 |

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