Political Bots: Disrupting Canada’s Democracy
Elizabeth Dubois, Fenwick Robert McKelvey · Canadian Journal of Communication · 2019
Bots—automated online agents that mimic human behaviour—attempting to influence public opinion through social media, provide a useful case of the challenges for regulating disruptive technologies. This article articulates four problems associated with bots in politics: identification, evidence, attribution, and enforcement. It then explores policy solutions, arguing the solutions must align with the type of disruption bots contribute to.