Surendra Thakur

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Surendra Thakur’s research lies at the intersection of computational social science and digital activism, with a focused lens on the manipulation of online discourse through automated actors. His work primarily investigates the role of social bots and cyborgs—semi-automated accounts—in shaping protest movements, particularly within the South African context. Thakur’s major contributions include pioneering the detection and classification of these non-human agents in the #FeesMustFall campaign, a landmark student-led movement that leveraged Twitter to demand accessible higher education. In his 2018 study, he demonstrated how bots and cyborgs infiltrated the campaign’s hashtag, potentially distorting authentic student voices and amplifying divisive narratives. His follow-up 2022 paper refined these detection methods, offering a robust framework for identifying automated manipulation in cause-related activism. Though his citation counts are modest (4 and 3, respectively), Thakur’s work is notable for its timely relevance and methodological rigor, providing essential tools for researchers studying digital democracy and misinformation. His findings underscore the vulnerability of grassroots movements to algorithmic interference, making his research a critical resource for students and scholars examining the intersection of technology, politics, and social justice in the Global South.