Social media use, social bot literacy, perceived threats from bots, and perceived bot control: a moderated-mediation model

The rapid development and widespread presence of social bots online has been transforming users’ online news environment. This study adopts a human-centered perspective to investigate the impact of individuals’ social media usage experiences on their social bot literacy, perception of threats posed from bots, and perceived social bot control within the context of China. We collected data from surveying 1159 Sina Weibo users and conducting interviews among 20 participants. The data were used to examine (1) the relationship between social media use and social bot literacy and perceived bot control, (2) the mediating role of social bot literacy between social media use and perceived bot control, and (3) the moderating role of perceived threat from bots in this relationship. The results of the analysis suggested a significant moderated mediation model in which social bot literacy mediated the correlation between social media use and perceived bot control and individuals’ perceived threat further moderated this relationship. Specifically, for those with a higher level of perceived threat, their indirect effect of social media use was lower compared to those with a lower level of perceived threat from bots.