Discriminating bot accounts based solely on temporal features of microblog behavior

Junshan Pan, Ying Liu, Xiang Liu and Hanping Hu

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2016, vol. 450, issue C, 193-204

Abstract: As the largest microblog service in China, Sina Weibo has attracted numerous automated applications (known as bots) due to its popularity and open architecture. We classify the active users from Sina Weibo into human, bot-based and hybrid groups based solely on the study of temporal features of their posting behavior. The anomalous burstiness parameter and time-interval entropy value are exploited to characterize automation. We also reveal different behavior patterns among the three types of users regarding their reposting ratio, daily rhythm and active days. Our findings may help Sina Weibo manage a better community and should be considered for dynamic models of microblog behaviors.

Keywords: Human dynamics; Microblog; Behavior patterns; Bots; Burstiness; Entropy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:450:y:2016:i:c:p:193-204

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.12.148

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