Understanding the Trolling Phenomenon: The Automated Detection of Bots and Cyborgs in the Social Media

Abstract:

Social media has become a place for discussion and debate on controversial topics and, thus, provides an opportunity to influence public opinion. This possibility has given rise to a specific behaviour known as trolling, which can be found in almost every discussion that includes emotionally appealing topics. Trolling is a useful tool for any organisation willing to force a discussion off-track when one has no proper facts to back one’s arguments. Previous research has indicated that social media analytics tools can be utilised for automated detection of trolling. This paper provides tools for detecting message automation utilized in trolling.

AUTHORS

Jarkko Paavola

Turku University of Applied Sciences
Turku, Finland

Dr. Jarkko Paavola is a research team leader and a principal lecturer with Turku University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland. He earned his doctoral degree in technology in the field of wireless communications from the University of Turku, Finland. His current research interests include information security and privacy, dynamic spectrum sharing, and information security architectures for systems utilising spectrum sharing.

Tuomo Helo

Turku University of Applied Sciences Turku,
Finland

Tuomo Helo is a senior lecturer with Turku University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland. He earned a master’s degree in information systems and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Turku, Finland. His current research interests include text analytics and data mining in general. He has also completed research in the fields of health economics and the economics of education.

Harri Jalonen

Turku University of Applied Sciences
Turku, Finland

Dr. Harri Jalonen is a principal lecturer and research group leader (AADI) at the Turku University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland. He also holds a position as an adjunct professor at the University of Vaasa. He has research experience dealing with knowledge and innovation management and digitalisation issues in different organisational contexts. He has published more than 100 articles in these fields. He is one of the most referred researchers in the field of complexity thinking in Finland. He has managed or been involved in many international and national research projects. In addition, he has guided several thesis projects, including doctoral theses. He is a reviewer for many academic journals and a committee member on international conferences.

Miika Sartonen

Concepts and Doctrine Division Finnish Defence Research Agency Riihimäki,
Finland

Miika Sartonen is a specialist researcher at Finnish Defence Research Agency, Concepts and Doctrine Division He is pursuing a PhD at the Finnish Defence University. He has authored and co-authored articles on military influence.

Aki-Mauri Huhtinen

Finnish National Defence University Helsinki
Finland

Dr. Aki-Mauri Huhtinen, (LTC [GS]) is a military professor at the Finnish National Defence University in the Department of Leadership and Military Pedagogy. His areas of expertise are military leadership, command and control, information warfare, the philosophy of science in military organizational research, and the philosophy of war. He has published peer-reviewed journal articles, a book chapter and books on information warfare and non-kinetic influence in the battle space. He has also organized and led several research and development projects in the Finnish Defence Forces during 2005-22.

Published In

Volume 15, Issue 4

Keywords

Social Media

Stakeholder

Trolling

Sentiment Analysis

Bot

Cyborg

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