id sid eid entity type spir-8434 1 1 16 CARDINAL spir-8434 1 2 16th ORDINAL spir-8434 1 3 annual DATE spir-8434 1 4 phoenix GPE spir-8434 1 5 az, usa / 21-24 october 2015 ORG spir-8434 2 1 norah&abokhodair&& university&of&washington,&information&school&& & samuel&woolley& university&of&washington,&communication&department& & philip&howard& university&of&washington,&communication&department& & david&mcdonald& university&of&washington,&human¢ered&design&and&engineering&department& introduction ORG spir-8434 2 2 social&media&–&especially&social&networking&sites&–&have&substantially&transformed&the& ways&in&which&people&discuss¤t&affairs&and&obtain&political&news&and&information EVENT spir-8434 2 3 & have&been&born,&organized&and&disseminated&on&sites&including&facebook,&twitter,& weibo,&and&youtube&[2].&like&any&technology,&though,&the&interfaces,&applications,&and& modes&of&communication&on&social&networking&sites&are&in&constant&negotiation ORG spir-8434 2 4 apa PERSON spir-8434 2 5 n. ORG spir-8434 2 6 woolley GPE spir-8434 2 7 s. GPE spir-8434 2 8 howard ORG spir-8434 2 9 2015, DATE spir-8434 2 10 october 21-24 DATE spir-8434 4 1 16 CARDINAL spir-8434 4 2 16th ORDINAL spir-8434 4 3 annual DATE spir-8434 5 1 phoenix GPE spir-8434 5 2 az GPE spir-8434 5 3 aoir PERSON spir-8434 5 4 http://spir.aoir.org ORG spir-8434 6 1 2 CARDINAL spir-8434 6 2 social&networking&sites&(sns)&such&as&twitter,&facebook,&and&reddit.&in&2012,&facebook& estimated&that&5y6%&of&all&facebook&accounts&were&fake.&this&is&a&high&percentage&for& facebook,&as&it&means&that&approximately&50&million&user&accounts&are&manufactured&or& not&human&[4].&a&recent&study&of&twitter&revealed&that&bots&make&up&32%&of&twitter& posts&generated&by&the&most&active&accounts&[5].&traditionally&bots&have&been& developed&and&deployed&to&automate&benign&tasks&(e.g.,&fix&syntax,&fetch&news& headlines)&and&malicious&tasks&(e.g ORG spir-8434 6 3 & bots)&on&sns&platforms.&these&automated&functions&have&been&a&part&of&the&web&almost& since&its&inception.&on&the&other&hand,&there&has&been&a&recent&emergence&of&bots&with& a&political&agenda.&these&bots&intervene&in&discourse&about&ongoing&political&events.& the&results&have&been&interesting&to&observe.&social&bots,&software&programs&designed& to&appear&as&human&users&on&social&networking&sites&like&twitter,&instagram,&and& facebook,&are&now¬&only&deployed&to&peddle&questionable&pharmaceuticals&or&trick& people&into&sharing&their&bank&accounts.&another,&more&propagandistic,&side&of&this& automated&technology&exists. ORG spir-8434 7 1 & & computational)propaganda) regimes&of&all&types&are&using&bots&across&multiple&sns&in&efforts&to&manipulate&public& opinion,&a&phenomenon&we&identify&and&theorize&as&‘computational&propaganda ORG spir-8434 8 1 ’&while& there&are&similarities&that&unite&this&broader&use&of&bots&in&the&public&political&sphere,& each&case&of&political&bot&usage&is&also&driven&by&the&particular&set&of&circumstances& surrounding&specific&political&events.&during&the&onygoing&syrian&civil&war,&for&instance,& bot&accounts&have&been&spread&on&twitter&and&facebook&by&a&group&of&programmers& employed&by&the&syrian&intelligence&[6].&based&on&a&recent&study&[7]&which&followed&the& botnet&through&the&35&weeks&it&was&active,&the&botnet&generated&a&massive&amount&of& content&with&more&than&3000&tweets&a&day&both&in&english&and&arabic.&according&to&this& research,&the&social&bot&had&three&main&aims:&first,&flooding&the&syrian&revolution& hashtags&(for&example&#syria,&#hama,&#daraa)d&second,&overwhelming&the&proy revolution&discussion&on&twitter&and&other&social&media&portalsd&and&third,&misdirecting& by&trying&to&get&the&audience&to&attend&to&other&content&(for&example,&the&protest&in& bahrain&and&libya ORG spir-8434 9 1 && & ORG spir-8434 10 1 3 CARDINAL spir-8434 14 1 in&this&submission,&our&aim&is&to&discuss&the&first&part&of&this&project&and&to&provide&a& guide&to&developing&coding&manuals&from&scratch.&since&the&inception&of&this&project&in& august&2014&the&team&was&involved&in&the&construction&of&an&original&event&data&set& (with&more&than&68&cases)&that&is&more&comprehensive&than&any&previously&available& data&sets&on&political&bots.&following&the&classical&methodology&of&the&study&of&unusual& phenomena&in&technology&diffusion&and&usability,&we&have&conducted&our&sampling&of& bot&use&by&means&of&news&reports&about&them&[8].&the&mediaybased&approach&to&data& collection&is&especially&valuable&when&the&phenomenon&at&hand&is&particularly&new.&the& main&goal&of&the&event&dataset&is&to&find&themes&and&similarities&across&all&cases&to&help& us&in&the&project&final&step.&from&the&dataset&we&sampled&several&cases&in&order&to& develop&a&codebook&using&qualitative&content&analysis.&this&step&was&necessary&to&aid& the&coding&of&all&the&available&cases&of&political&bots.&in&the&codebook&we&included&seven& overarching&categories:&botnet&name,&botnet&description,&the&domain&impacted,&the& target&country,&the&target&organization,&the&suspected&deployer,&and&the&depolyer& goal.&these&categories&were&developed&based&on&an&iterative&exploration&of&samples&of& the&events,&assumptions&about&the&way&a&political&botnet&might&work,&and&what&we&have& observed&in&the&prior&literature&on&political&bots. ORG spir-8434 15 1 && & each&case&was&coded&three×&by&three&different&coders&resulting&in&a&total&of&174& coded&cases.&finally,&we&conducted&an&interycoder&reliability&test&to&finalize&the&codes& and&improve&the&code&book.&our&goal&is&to&make&the&code&book&available&on&the&project& • ORG spir-8434 16 1 • CARDINAL spir-8434 16 2 • CARDINAL spir-8434 16 3 three CARDINAL spir-8434 17 1 4 CARDINAL spir-8434 17 2 website1&for&other&researchers,&with&hopes&that&they&might&benefit&from&the&tool.&we& have&also&included&a&political&bot&reporting&tool&on&the&website&in&an&effort&to&crowdy source&more&cases&worldwide.&as&mentioned&earlier,&our&goal&is&to&find&themes&across& ORG spir-8434 18 1 & we&are¤tly&concluding&the&first&part&of&the&project&and&finding&many&important& lessons&to&report&for&researchers&interested&in&similar&work.&our&proposed&methodology& makes&use&of&triangulation&of&evidence&from&online&and&offline&sources&through&the& analysis&of&data&emerging&from&the&qualitative&coding&stage&(part&one)&with&the&data&we& gain&from&interviewing&botnet&makers&and&botnet&trackers&(part&2)&in&order&to&piece& together&parts&of&the&narrative&of&a&contemporary&ict&phenomenon.&the&results&of&this& work&will&contribute&to&the&literature&on&internet&research&and&the&use&of&automated& scripts&in&many&ways.&one&way&is&through&the&development&of&a&comprehensive&analysis& of&the¤t&ways&political&bots&are&being&utilized&and&how&they&influence&public& opinion.&we&believe&that&this&work&will&help&local&and&foreign&policy&makers&better& ORG spir-8434 19 1 && & & references& ORG spir-8434 20 1 1]&w.&lance&bennett&and&alexandra&segerberg,&the!logic!of!connective!action:!digital CARDINAL spir-8434 23 1 2]&f.&edwards,&philip&n.&howard,&and&mary&joyce,&“digital&activism&and&nonyviolent& conflict”&(digital&activism&research&project,&2013)d&jennifer&earl&and&katrina&kimport,& digitally!enabled!social!change&(the&mit&press,&2011 ORG spir-8434 25 1 3]&yuval&rosenberg,&“62&percent&of&all&web&traffic&comes&from&bots,”&the!week CARDINAL spir-8434 25 2 & december&16,&2013,&http://theweek.com/article ORG spir-8434 25 3 index/254183/62ypercentyofyallyweby CARDINAL spir-8434 27 1 facebooky5y6yofy accountsyareyfake/10167& WORK_OF_ART spir-8434 28 1 1!politicalbots.org CARDINAL spir-8434 29 1 5 CARDINAL spir-8434 30 1 6]&york,&j.&c.&(2011,&april&).&syria's&twitter&spambots.&(t.&guardian,&producer CARDINAL spir-8434 31 1 ,&mcdonald,&d.&(2015).&dissecting&a&social&botnet:&growth,& content&and&influence&on&twitter.&proceedings&of&the&acm&conference&on&computer& supported&cooperative&work&(cscw&2015).&acm& ORG spir-8434 31 2 8]&earl,&j CARDINAL