Australia's bushfire emergency is being exploited on social media, as misinformation is spread through cyberspace via hundreds of thousands of posts.

Key points: Bushfire discussion on social media is attracting a high number of "bot-like and troll-like accounts"

Bushfire discussion on social media is attracting a high number of "bot-like and troll-like accounts" Some of the misinformation includes the idea left-wing "ecoterrorists" are behind some fires

Some of the misinformation includes the idea left-wing "ecoterrorists" are behind some fires The lies are highly sharable, which means they can spread faster than the truth

Out-of-date photos of survivors and inaccurate fire maps have been widely shared, including by international celebrities.

As authorities fight the flames on firegrounds around the country, an ABC investigation has revealed a battle of a very different kind online.

One area of misinformation has been the hashtag #ArsonEmergency on Twitter.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Dr Timothy Graham analysed a sample 315 accounts posting #ArsonEmergency and said around a third of them displayed highly automated and inauthentic behaviour.

In layman's terms, that means they could be bots or trolls.

Tweets downplaying climate change were shared tens of thousands of times.

He said the topic appeared to be attracting a "suspiciously high number of bot-like and troll-like accounts".

The ABC found some of the suspicious accounts were amplifying unproven suggestions arson had been the overwhelming cause of Australia's disastrous bushfire season.

A number of the tweets took police figures out of context and claimed almost 200 arsonists had been arrested in NSW.

The actual number of people charged with deliberately lighting a fire is 24 — even fewer managed to spark large blazes.

An article posted by an American far-right figure went one step further, claiming left-wing ecoterrorists were responsible for lighting the blazes.

The false claims about arsonists were used by some to shift the online debate away from the impact of climate change.

It has been shared almost 100,000 times across Facebook, Twitter and Reddit and reached a potential 2.8 million accounts — significantly more than general bushfire fact checks.

While there are no precise figures for Instagram and messaging apps such as Telegram and Whatsapp — which boasts millions of users in Australia — the post, or sections from it, were shared on those platforms too.

Dr Graham said the social media disinformation being spread around topics like arson was complex because it often had a "grain of truth".

"The motivation underlying this often tends to not be changing people's opinions about the bushfire itself and how it's happening, but to sow discord and magnify already existing tensions in polarised political issues," he said.

Real users spreading falsehoods

Despite the role bots have been playing in amplifying misinformation about the bushfires, a political consultant said it was largely real users who were responsible for spreading falsehoods.

John Macgowan is a former Liberal Party staffer who is investigating misinformation campaigns and bot networks on social media.

While bot networks are common in the United States and Europe, Australia is not seen as a target market for people looking to influence the political landscape through this method.

He said the tools used to operate a botnet — the process of running multiple accounts simultaneously — do not scale in Australia, where there is a significantly smaller population.

"The margin in a political campaign is getting a vote and you're not getting votes from bots," Mr Macgowan said.

Real accounts, not bots, were driving the narrative with exaggerated or misrepresented claims.

Mr Macgowan said effective bot operations typically had at least 100,000 accounts.

"The question is, is this just a bunch of angry people on both sides, or is this something more orchestrated?"

He said whatever bad information was being dispersed online in Australia was mostly being done by real people.

Dr Andrea Carson, an expert in political communication at La Trobe University, said emergencies such as bushfires were a period of heightened emotion.

And that made it a particularly dangerous time to spread lies online, she said.

Misinformation can "spread wildly, just like bushfires". ( Supplied: Gena Dray )

"Given the nature of misinformation, it can spread wildly, much like bushfire can," she said.

"Some information has measurable facts in it and other information has value-laden judgments, and you can't necessarily check information that has people's values."

Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow users to flag potentially misleading or false content.

In general, experts recommend using trusted media outlets, checking multiple sources and avoiding sharing content without a clear attribution.