Cavalier Bot Regulation and the First Amendment's Threat Model | Knight First Amendment Institute

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Balancing artificial bot babble, real human exchange, and First Amendment obligations when regulating online spaces An essay series reimagining the First Amendment in the digital age One question that has prompted debate about the First Amendment’s role in modern society is: What should we do about “bots” on social media? Bot accounts are online accounts where a substantial majority of the content is generated or posted without direct user input. Bot accounts have a bad reputation, thanks in large part to the thousands of Russian-linked Facebook and Twitter bot accounts deployed at scale to spread disinformation and sow social discord in the lead-up to the 2016 election.1 1. See Daniel Oberhaus, Election 2016 Belongs to the Twitter Bots, Motherboard (Nov. 7, 2016), https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/78kmky/election-2016-belongs-to-the-twitter-bots (reporting on a study finding that 20 percent of election tweets were generated by bots). Policymakers and commentators have since

One question that has prompted debate about the First Amendment's role in modern society is: What should we do about "bots" on social media? Bot accounts are online accounts where a substantial majority of the content is generated or posted without direct user input. Bot accounts have a bad reputation, thanks in large part to the thousands of Russian-linked Facebook and Twitter bot accounts deployed at scale to spread disinformation and sow social discord in the lead-up to the 2016 election. 1 1. See Daniel Oberhaus, Election 2016 Belongs to the Twitter Bots , Motherboard (Nov. 7, 2016), https

Cavalier Bot Regulation and the First Amendment's Threat Model | Knight First Amendment Institute

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