A study on digital interactions with Barcelona has found that as much as 30 per cent of the social media conversation around the club are being controlled by automated accounts, according to Palco23, reports, www.sportspromedia.com/.
A study by I3 Ventures, seen by the Spanish sports industry outlet, says that Barcelona has a community of 12 million active users participating in active online discourse about the La Liga club. The study reportedly reveals that a total of 31,772 accounts show "abnormal activity patterns" and, in the I3's opinion, exist with the sole purpose of discrediting the brand.
According to Palco23, the study asserts that pattern of behaviour from those accounts demonstrates a "systematic attack" on Barcelona. Much of the anomalous activity apparently occurs after defeats for the men's first team, often calling for the resignation of current coach, Ernesto Valverde, as well posts in relation to the conviction of former club president Sandro Rosell.
'The automated accounts were sowing detractor content in periods where there is no genuine conversation,' says the report, according to Palco23.
The report also apparently reveals that one per cent of the accounts actively involved in club discourse managed to generate 20 per cent of the critical content. Also that the users demonstrating 'non-human' behaviour - such as bots, automated accounts, false accounts and zombies - manage to control an average of 12 per cent of the club-related conversations, with peaks reaching up to 30 per cent.
The study was apparently carried out between November 2017 and May 2019, analysing 150 pieces of content across 13,800 hours. It reportedly found that 27 per cent of the Barca-related conversations were from Spanish-speaking accounts, 15 per cent from Catalan, 21 per cent from French – including those from Africa – four per cent from the US and two per cent from the UK.
Palco23 says that the I3 report shows a hardcore of Barcelona criticism comes from Catalan-language users, where local user debate off-field topics such as economics, ideology or political positioning.
