Upper House Election: Certain Claims Spread Rapidly on Social Media During Election; Analysis Discovers Content Spread by Bot-Like Accounts

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, January 5, 2026

Certain assertions spread in an abnormal fashion on social media during the House of Councillors election in July last year, an investigation by a cybersecurity company has found.

About 9,400 social media accounts were detected that showed signs of behaving like bots, such as mass retweets to amplify particular assertions. Analysis of a sample of these accounts showed that such assertions were rapidly spread during July by about half of them.

Japan Nexus Intelligence Inc. compiled a report after its investigation, which particularly covered the period from the start of official campaigning for the election on July 3 to the voting and ballot counting on July 20.

Using a social media analysis tool, the company detected about 9,400 accounts showing bot-like behavior, such as spreading posts by repeatedly reposting during a short period of time. The company also examined the activity from January 2025 to July that year of 170 social media accounts deemed more likely to be bots based on characteristics such as their account information and date of creation.

It found that certain assertions were significantly disseminated through 77 accounts, or 45% of the 170, in July when the election was held.

Some of these accounts primarily spread criticism of specific politicians or the assertions of specific political parties. The report says the spread of such posts certainly contributed to an increase in people’s exposure to specific ideologies.

Regarding the upper house election, a senior Japanese government official said, “Our country has been among the targets of influence operations” involving foreign interference in elections through social media.

However, Japan Nexus Intelligence’s head analyst said: “It’s difficult to make a definite conclusion. We can’t say for sure whether there was interference.”

The report says, “An era has arrived in which election outcomes can be significantly swayed by the ability to build passionate communities and create compelling narratives that resonate with people.”

“Even if posts and their dissemination are unscrupulous in nature, it’s difficult for viewers to ascertain the information providers’ intent,” the analyst said. “People should consciously be skeptical when they see information on social media.”