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1	Twitter Bots as a Threat to Democracy : How political bots on Twitter jeopardized democratic functions of the online public sphere during the 2022 Swedish general election Wahlberg, Linus January 2022 (has links) With more political and social discourse taking place online, particularly on social media, theorists have started labeling digital communicative realms as “online public spheres.” However, with the modern public sphere comes modern challenges to political communication; a core antagonist of which is political bots. Political bots are automated accounts that produce content and interact with individuals on political topics on social networks. In this thesis, I analyzed the presence of political bots on Twitter during the 2022 Swedish general election, and by examining the content posted by the bots, I investigated whether they jeopardized democratic functions of the online public sphere by publishing misrepresentation (i.e., artificially increasing the popularity of political actors and political ideas). The analysis uncovered significant bot presence during the 2022 Swedish general election; more than one-fifth of all election-related content was produced by bots, ~90% of which produced misrepresentation. I concluded that political bots jeopardized democratic functions of the online public sphere during the 2022 Swedish general election. Political bots Social bots Twitter bots Social media bots Social network bots Public sphere theory Public sphere Online public sphere Virtual public sphere digital public sphere networked public sphere Twitter Democracy Threat to democracy Sweden Swedish election Swedish general election 2022 Swedish general election Astroturfing Botometer Political Science Statsvetenskap

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Twitter Bots as a Threat to Democracy : How political bots on Twitter jeopardized democratic functions of the online public sphere during the 2022 Swedish general election