Study Says Social Media ‘Bots’ Worked to Boost ‘Super League’

A Spanish company that works on digital media projects recently released a study showing that social media ‘bots' and ‘troll farms' worked in support of the European Soccer Super League last April.

A bot is a software program that performs actions automatically¹, or without human intervention². A troll farm is a place that creates fake³ accounts and tries to affect the discussion about an issue.

The combination of the two works faster than human users. The goal is to create fake trending topics on social media.

In the 72 hours after the league was announced, the bots and trolls used over 270,000 new accounts to publish two million tweets in favor of the new league.

The Super League involved a number of Europe's top soccer teams. The teams wanted to break away from UEFA and form their own league. UEFA is the organization that runs European soccer. It puts on events like the European championship and the Champions League.

The teams included Real Madrid and Barcelona of Spain, Juventus and A.C. Milan in Italy and Manchester United and Liverpool in Great Britain.

The league fell apart when several teams pulled out. Fans were upset with their teams. Players were unhappy with team owners. Leaders of traditional soccer organizations like FIFA and UEFA criticized the new league and said they might ban some players from future events.

At the height of the news about the Super League, some fake accounts posted as often as 10 times every second. The Spanish company Pandemia Digital, which wrote the report, said most of the "bots" were based in Spain and in Arabic-speaking countries.

Most of the tweets were in favor of the league or promoted messages that were against UEFA.

One popular hashtag was in favor of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. It was "EstamosContigoPresi," which in English means "we are with you, president." That message came from 7,000 different accounts. Most of those accounts had no followers⁴.

Pandemia Digital also said one message came out 3,600 times in just three or four hours: "The super league is a good idea and will revolutionize football."

Words in This Story

league – n. a group of sports teams that play against each other

automatically – adv. a way of describing something that can be done without the help of a person

fake – adj. not true or real

trend – n. something that is currently⁵ popular or talked about

topic – n. something that people are thinking about or writing about

promote – v. to make people aware of (something, such as a new product) through advertising⁶ : to make (something) more popular, well-known, etc.

1 automatically   

adv.不加思索地，无意识地，自动地

参考例句：

• The machine cycles automatically.这台机器自动循环运转。
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers.她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。

2 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

3 fake   

vt.伪造，造假，假装；n.假货，赝品

参考例句：

• He can tell a fake from the original.他能分辨出赝品和真品。
• You can easily fake up an excuse to avoid going out with him.你可以很容易地编造一个借口而不与他一同外出。

4 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

5 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

6 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。