Groups and individuals

[Shishirgano9]

A final indicator, particularly common among political botnets, is a location shared by many suspicious accounts . Political “shepherds” tend to use the location where the candidate or party they are promoting is running to try to identify a content trend in that particular constituency .

For example, before the Mexican elections, a botnet promoting two PRI party candidates in the state of Puebla used Puebla as its location. This was likely done so that real Twitter users in Puebla would see the tweets and messages amplified by the bots.



Raw data showing the location of Twitter bots that amplified PRI colombia cell phone number list party's candidates in the state of Puebla (Source. Sysomos)

Are all bots political bots?

No, the majority of bots are commercial bot accounts , meaning they are run by who amplify content they are paid to promote. Commercial bots may be hired to promote political content.

Political bots, on the other hand, are created for the sole purpose of amplifying the political content of a particular party, candidate, interest group, or point of view. DFRLab discovered several political botnets promoting PRI party candidates in the state of Puebla ahead of the Mexican elections.