The “Russian bots” between social and technological: Examining the ordinary folk theories of Twitter users

Abstract

The bots’ activity is already frequently documented in the literature, and the war between Russia and Ukraine accentuated this scholarly interest for users’ sensemaking. Applying folk theories framework on 56 semi-structured interviews with users who tweet about “Russian bots,” I examine how bots might be understood as structural-computational entities, with complex roles in shaping digitally mediated realities. Findings reveal several theories associated with Russian bots. First, participants believe that these bots actively endorse users’ political enemies, which are mainly politicians from the participants’ countries. Second, such bots are considered to increase animosities between users, as participants actively unfollow their peers on Twitter and unfriend them in real life, based on their opinions regarding the war in Ukraine. Third, bots boost users’ digital activity, given the fact that participants consider them responsible for artificially increasing the popularity of certain accounts or, on the contrary, for systematic and aggressive attacks against others.