Bots and trolls ‘spreading false information on Australian fires’

Climate change denial rife on social media, with bushfires blamed on the Greens and arson

Automated social media accounts, or Twitter bots, are being used to spread politically charged misinformation about Australia’s devastating bushfires, a Queensland University of Technology analysis has revealed.

Timothy Graham, a digital media researcher with QUT’s school of communication, analysed more than 300 accounts that had posted comments with the hashtag #ArsonEmergency in relation to the bushfires.