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South American dictator uses an army of bots to game Twitter

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves a miniature Panamanian flag from a car after attending a ceremony at a monument that honors the victims of the 1989 U.S. invasion, in the Chorrillo neighborhood, which saw the heaviest fighting during the invasion, in Panama City, Friday, April 10, 2015. A crowd of several hundred chanted in Spanish, "Maduro, stick it to the Yankee!" (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves a miniature Panamanian flag from a car after attending a ceremony at a monument that honors the victims of the 1989 U.S. invasion, in the Chorrillo neighborhood, which saw the heaviest fighting during the invasion, in Panama City, Friday, April 10, 2015. A crowd of several hundred chanted in Spanish, "Maduro, stick it to the Yankee!" (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves a miniature Panamanian flag from a car after attending a ceremony at a monument that honors the victims of the 1989 U.S. invasion, in the Chorrillo neighborhood, which saw the heaviest fighting during the invasion, in Panama City, Friday, April 10, 2015. A crowd of several hundred chanted in Spanish, "Maduro, stick it to the Yankee!" (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

By Associated Press 5 min read

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s approval ratings may be languishing below 30 percent, but on Twitter he’s as popular as Pope Francis – or so it would seem.

The socialist South American leader regularly sets social media afire with support, with heavily trending anti-U.S. campaigns such #ObamaYankeeGoHome and #ObamaRepealTheExecutiveOrder, which denounced U.S. sanctions on members of Maduro’s administration.

But a closer look suggests that the government is artificially inflating its social media influence and distorting its popularity. Independent analysts who ran tests at the request of The Associated Press found the government was benefiting from networks of fake accounts.

Automated accounts known as bots are a worldwide phenomenon that Twitter has struggled to stop. Programmers create them in batches, and Twitter has to eliminate them one by one. At one point, Maduro complained that Twitter had shut down more than 6,000 accounts that followed him. The company declined comment for this story.

Among the other powerbrokers who experts say routinely employ bot networks in violation of Twitter’s policies are the leaders of Russia, Mexico and Turkey, as well as supporters of the Islamic State group.