How Bots Threaten Democracy by Misrepresenting Actors and Ideas: The Case of the 2022 Swedish Election

Online democratic discourse faces threats from diverse forms of information manipulation, including disinformation campaigns and foreign influence operations. Among these, political bots represent a covert and scalable threat, infiltrating online debates, amplifying select viewpoints, and distorting perceptions of public opinion. This article investigates the scale and nature of political bot activity on Twitter (now X) leading up to the 2022 Swedish general election (August 1–September 11), estimating that over one‐fifth (22%) of election‐related content was generated by likely automated accounts. To assess how such activity impacts democratic deliberation, the article develops and applies “misrepresentation” as an analytical framework for identifying the artificial manipulation of perceived support or opposition toward political parties and candidates, as well as political viewpoints and interests. The “misrepresentation” framework offers a methodology for assessing how bot tactics undermine democratic deliberation. Accounts showing signs of bot‐like behavior disproportionately targeted the Social Democratic‐led “red‐green" coalition with coordinated negative messaging and amplified anti‑immigration viewpoints. These dynamics disrupted principles of democratic deliberation— proportionality , transparency, plurality , and empowerment —within the Swedish online public sphere. The article demonstrates how inauthentic participation challenges high‐trust societies by jeopardizing their democratic foundation, advancing the understanding of digital manipulation tactics in the Nordic context.