Societies are complex systems, which tend to polarize into subgroups
of individuals with dramatically opposite perspectives.
This phenomenon is reflected—and often amplified—in online
social networks, where, however, humans are no longer the only...
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Societies are complex systems, which tend to polarize into subgroups
of individuals with dramatically opposite perspectives.
This phenomenon is reflected—and often amplified—in online
social networks, where, however, humans are no longer the only
players and coexist alongside with social bots—that is, softwarecontrolled
accounts. Analyzing large-scale social data collected
during the Catalan referendum for independence on October 1,
2017, consisting of nearly 4 millions Twitter posts generated by
almost 1 million users, we identify the two polarized groups of
Independentists and Constitutionalists and quantify the structural
and emotional roles played by social bots. We show that bots act
from peripheral areas of the social system to target influential
humans of both groups, bombarding Independentists with violent
contents, increasing their exposure to negative and inflammatory
narratives, and exacerbating social conflict online. Our findings
stress the importance of dev
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