Astroturfing as a strategy for manipulating public opinion on Twitter during the pandemic in Spain

This work aims to establish whether astroturfing was used during the Covid-19 pandemic manipulate Spanish public opinion through Twitter. study analyzes tweets published in and geolocated Philippines, its first objective is determine existence of an organized network that directs messages mainly towards Spain. To non-existence a random network, preliminary collection 1,496,596 carried out. After determining 14 main clusters, 280 users with medium-low profile participation micro- nano-influencer traits were randomly selected followed for 103 days, total 309,947 tweets. Network science, text mining, sentiment emotion, bot probability analyses performed using Gephi R. Their structure suggests ultra-small-world phenomenon, which would possible tries not be easily identifiable. The data analyzed confirm digital communication scenario as strategy aimed at manipulating non-influencers (cybertroops). These create disseminate content proximity closeness different groups opinion, mixing topics general interest disinformation or polarized content.