Owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk
AFP
Published 04/24/2024 18:15
The Internet and Social Network Studies Laboratory (NetLab) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) published a survey on the clash between businessman Elon Musk and the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes at X (formerly Twitter). Analyzing publications on the topic, the researchers identified that almost half (47.9%) of the profiles that endorsed Musk’s arguments, responsible for 53.7% of the shares analyzed, were classified as inauthentic – popularly known as bots or robots.
The research identified and analyzed around 90.6 thousand posts, published between April 8th and 9th. The publications came from 39 thousand accounts that posted content in English and 30.5 thousand in Portuguese. The researchers concluded that 40.7% of posts in English were from inauthentic accounts, while in Portuguese profiles this rate was 33.4%.
The billionaire himself says he is against the presence of robots on the platform, which he purchased in October 2022. That year, Musk requested an investigation to investigate the platform’s numbers, stating that they could reach 20% of the total existing accounts. Last week, he stated that new X users will have to pay “small fees” to publish messages on the network during the first three months, as a measure to combat bots.
In the group that endorses Musk’s speech, among real users, federal deputies Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Marcel Van Hatten (Novo-RS) and influencer Paulo Figueiredo, grandson of former president João Figueiredo, last to govern the country under a military dictatorship. Paulo had his account restricted by court order and is being investigated for disinformation and attacks on democracy.
The other group, which points out inconsistencies and distortions in Musk’s speech, is made up of 35.5% bots against 58.6% real accounts. 5.7% of accounts were not categorized. Among the real profiles are that of Sleeping Giants Brasil, first lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja, and influencer Felipe Neto.
Another difference between the two groups, supporting and criticizing the billionaire, is the date on which the profiles were created. The community around Musk is made up of 31% of profiles created in the last 24 months. Among bots in this group, the rate rises to 44.5% of recently created profiles. In the opposite group, critical of Musk, 19% of profiles were created in the last two years. Among bots, it was 31%.
NetLab developed a classifier with the help of artificial intelligence to identify inauthentic accounts, that is, those that do not belong to or represent a single person, as in the case of bots – when the same user can control, through software, several fake accounts that perform automated tasks. The machine learning model developed by the laboratory has an accuracy (closeness between the measurement and the real value) of 73% and precision (consistency in repeated measurements) of 64%.
For two weeks now, Musk has been instigating a campaign against Brazilian institutions, mainly to the detriment of the STF and Moraes. The businessman stated that the minister is “against democracy”, accusing him of authoritarianism and practicing censorship in the country.
Moraes gave the social network five days to comment on a report from the Federal Police (PF) which indicates that X allowed the transmission of lives through six profiles blocked by court decision. The deadline expires this Friday, the 26th. In the conflict between Musk and the Brazilian justice system, the businessman threatened not to comply with court decisions, and, in response, Moraes included him in the investigation into digital militias.
American deputies joined the discussion and published letters sent to the platforms to comply with the decision that determined the removal of content or profiles from the air. The supposed “persecution” of the Brazilian right has been used by parliamentarians allied with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to try to substantiate the thesis that the magistrate may be acting beyond his judicial powers. Last Sunday, the 22nd, at the event he organized on Copacabana beach, in Rio, Bolsonaro praised the billionaire, whom he called the “myth of freedom”.
