Influence by the Bot Buddies
By Lynnette Hui Xian Ng
Publication: Our book, is published by Cambridge Publishing Press in May 2026.
Image Credit: Image by author, published as book cover
Citation: Lynnette Hui Xian Ng and Kathleen M. Carley, Bots, Bias, and Influence: The Hidden Architects of Social Media (2026).
Keywords: social media bots, social media, bots, influence operations
Digital conversations on social media are more than just human voices. Automated agents called Bots now weave themselves into our conversations and collective beliefs. This book takes readers on an exploration of how Bots span simple automated scripts to complex agents that mirror, magnify and manipulate human behavior online.
This book begins by first defining the social media ecosystem, then proceeds to describing the difference between bots and humans in terms of linguistic signatures, social affiliations, network topologies, topic profiles and coordinated interactions. Next, the book explores the different bot personas, and how each of them are used for digital influence.
Thirteen Bot Personas
Just like all us humans are unique, not all bots are the same. They have a diverse set of programming that enables them to carry out varied tasks on social media platforms. We developed a typology of bot personas that are divided into operational strategies and rhetorical tactics.
Bot personas defined by operational tactics are distinguished by the mechanical patterns of their activity. Examples of these patterns are how the bots post and how the bots interact with each other. These tactics often leave visible traces in the timing, frequency and synchronicity of interactions, and therefore can be captured through network analysis. These bots are:
- Amplifier bots: designed to boost the reach and visibility of content or narratives through high-frequency sharing behaviors
- Repeater bots: echo content with little or no textual modification, often recreating the same message as an original post
- Social influence bots: designed to shape public opinion by actively engaging with users and steering conversations towards certain desired viewpoints
- Cyborgs: hybrid accounts that combine automated functionality with human oversight
- Bridging bots: designed to connect otherwise separate groups of users and serve as intermediaries in the flow of information across communities
- Coordinated bots: bots that act together with other automated accounts, producing synchronized bursts of activity around shared content
- Chaos bots: create disruption and confusion within online conversations
Bot personas can also be defined by rhetorical strategies. This means they are characterized by what type of messages they put out and how they frame their messages. These bots are:
- Self-declared bots: openly label themselves as bots
- Announcer bots: provide automated notifications, publishing updates on a schedule or when specific conditions are met
- Content generation bots: designed to produce original material for online ecosystems
- Information correction bots: identify and respond to false information by providing fact-checks, contextual clarifications or links to authoritative sources like government sites, official websites or institutional sites
- Genre-specific bots: a bot specialized to post within a narrow topical domain
- Conversational bots: engage directly in dialogue with users, to simulate interpersonal communication
- Engagement generation bots: maximize interaction rates on posts by strategically deploying rhetorical cues that elicit likes, shares and comments
- News bots: disseminate news updates on digital platforms
Image by author. An illustrated network of the different types of bots. The positioning of these bots in the network mirrors their typical operational positioning.
Bots in Influence Operations
Influence in digital spaces happens through the orchestration of a series of information maneuvers. These maneuver sequences together make the chosen narratives salient and resonant to the target audience.
Bots actively take part in influence maneuvers, especially across political, diplomatic and conflict settings. Bots deploy information maneuvers that can tilt how issues are framed, emotions are evoked, what groups are present and who the leaders of the groups are. In politics, organized clusters of bots push attention by repetitively reinforcing chosen hashtags and narrative tropes . They amplify religious political narratives and strengthen the group that support those narratives. In geopolitical conflict, like the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict, pro-Ukraine bot communities leaned on information maneuvers like Back, Build, Bridge, Boost, Engage, Excite and Enhance, to rally, mobilize and clarify their stances {}. Outside hot war, bots that participate in digital diplomacy exhibit similar mechanics. They emphasize community-building maneuvers, exhibiting mutual sharing of messages to prop up the narratives and other accounts, and used emotional hooks to tug at heartstrings.
Concluding Statements
Bots are powerful programmatic actors that shape discourse, amplify narratives and either disrupt or sustain communities across social media platforms. They have profound influence by increasing user engagement and expanding social connections, while often undermining meaningful human-to-human interactions.
Bots are no longer peripheral players in the online social ecosystem, but have become dominant forces in shaping the digital landscape on every social media platform. In 2025, bots range from simple automated scripts to sophisticated AI-driven entities that account for over half of the online activity. They have weaved themselves into the fabric of discourse, commerce and social interaction. Recognizing the dual nature of bots – as both threats and assets – is imperative for shaping healthier, more trustworthy online ecosystems.
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