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_DOA_ t1_iuw50w3 wrote

I’m really curious how many of these were bots, sock puppets, Russian trolls, etc.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/05/study-russia-cybersecurity-twitter-1353543

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685327592 t1_iuw8dkl wrote

Likely very few. The idea that bots are behind everything is overly optimistic. The reality is Americans truly are very divided.

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_DOA_ t1_iuww3bi wrote

You made a couple huge leaps/assumptions to make this statement. "No one said bots are behind everything." Division in U.S. politics is real, and some number of bots/Russian trolls/sock puppets on Twitter is also real. One doesn't make the other impossible/untrue.

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Stan_Golem t1_iuw8xza wrote

That's exactly what a bot would say /s

But seriously, wasn't it confirmed that a lot of the "trump supporters" on social media were actually bots?

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685327592 t1_iuw9gqx wrote

Do you have a citation for that? 74 million people voted for Trump so there's clearly a lot of legitimate supporters.

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Kenilwort t1_iuwa6r2 wrote

I have no doubt that Trump has a huge amount of supporters. But bots are also very plausible and troll farms are a real thing. One would then have to prove how many bots were being used for this of course.

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Tiabaja t1_iuwdr23 wrote

Why do you think they decided to vote for him? Media/social media persuasion works, especially with an army of bots and paid influencers.

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685327592 t1_iuwe6bv wrote

Obviously some people were affected but my point is most of his supporters sincerely support him, they aren't just following some Twitter bot opinion.

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Stan_Golem t1_iuwbluc wrote

My Google is acting up so I can't click any links and share them. But Google trump supporters bots and there are a lot of articles about it.

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DrMobius0 t1_iuwax95 wrote

It's both, honestly. It takes a large operation to hijack the conversation so consistently, but once you get it going, well, you can see the results.

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