Influence of fake social media accounts

A study into social media trends during the US elections last year found out that 20 per cent of election-related tweets sent out between September 16, to October 21st, were generated by bots - robot or software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. Today, social media bots are increasingly easy to create and hard to detect.

With the help of YouTube instructional video and a Google spreadsheet, one can create a simple Twitter bot in minutes. Distinguishing between real users and bots can be difficult but there are some telltale signs that can give users a clue.