8 of the top 10 Brexit Party promoting Twitter accounts appear to be bots

Almost all of the ten most active Brexit Party supporters on Twitter appear to be automated bots, according to new research. Leader Nigel Farage has hailed the swell of support for the group as “the most amazing grassroots support that’s ever been seen in this period of time in British politics.” But while bots were also found promoting other parties, Nigel Farage’s group had the largest number of suspected automated accounts promoting them. A study by the Institute for Strategic Discourse identified the ten most active accounts discussing the Brexit Party using their official handle. The think tank found eight out of the top ten most active accounts showed signs of automation. Five of the top ten accounts mentioning the Brexit Party on Twitter were producing more than 144 tweets per day, an average of one tweet every 3.3 minutes over an eight hour period. Bots also appear to be heavily promoting Ukip, with six bot-like accounts in their top ten Twitter accounts. Other parties are affected, but not to the same exent.