A study of tens of thousands of Tweets related to marijuana found more than half were generated by bots, with many of them spreading false information.

Bots, short for robots, are automated programs that spread information online.

The study by researchers at the University of Southern California was published this week in the American Journal of Public Health.

In a news release, the researchers said unproven health claims coming from bots on Twitter illustrate “how false statements may drown out solid science on social media.”

They noted the federal government so far has approved marijuana to treat only a small number of conditions, including nausea caused by cancer treatment and AIDS and HIV, and two forms of epilepsy among children.

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Posts generated by the bots suggested numerous other conditions would benefit from treatment with marijuana, the researchers said.

“The worry is that all the online chatter about cannabis’s beneficial qualities will have offline consequences, ultimately influencing attitudes and behaviors,” one of them said in the news release.

The researchers sampled marijuana-related Tweets posted between May and December of 2018, and used a tool to identify those likely coming from bots.