On Message Exchange Motifs Emerging during Human/Bot Interactions in Multilayer Networks: The Case of Two Riot Events

摘要

In this paper, we analyze the message exchange patterns that emerge when social bots and human users communicate via Twitter. In particular, we use a multilayer network to analyze the emergence of the corresponding representative and statistically significant sub-graphs (so called motifs). Our analysis is based on two recent riot events, namely the Philadelphia Super-bowl 2018 riots and the 2017 G20 riots in Hamburg (Germany). We found that in these two events message exchanges between humans form characteristic and re-occurring communication patterns. In contrast, message exchanges including bots occur rather sporadically and do not follow a particular statistically significant pattern.