Publications

For a recent study on automated accounts and Twitter, we had to answer a fundamental question: Which accounts are bots and which accounts aren’t? Read a Q&A with Stefan Wojcik, a computational social scientist at the Center and one of the report’s authors, on how he and his colleagues navigated this question.

The Pew Research Center set out to better understand how many of the links being shared on Twitter are being promoted by bots rather than humans. Our analysis found that an estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.

Read key findings and watch a video about our new study on how bot accounts affect the mix of content on Twitter.

An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.

Read key findings from an analysis that looks into the public's interest in guns as potential consumer products, rather than as a subject of general interest.

Survey Report The public continues to express favorable opinions of a number of federal agencies and departments. And while positive opinions of the FBI among Republicans have slipped since early last year, two-thirds of Americans – including a majority of Republicans – view the bureau favorably.   The public rates the 10 agencies and departments included […]

About seven-in-ten women in Congress mentioned sexual misconduct in their official Facebook posts between Oct. 1 and Dec. 30, 2017, compared with 37% of men in Congress.

The most ideological members of Congress shared news stories on their Facebook pages more than twice as often as moderate legislators between Jan. 2, 2015, and July 20, 2017, according to a new Pew Research Center study that examined all official Facebook posts created by members of Congress in this period. The analysis included links […]

Political divides in the American news landscape do not end with Americans’ preferences for different news sources; rather, they extend to how members of the U.S. Congress communicate with constituents in the digital age.

In the week after the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas, partisan differences were on full display in how elected officials responded on Facebook.