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685327592 t1_iuw8dkl wrote

Reply to comment by _DOA_ in [OC] US Twitter reached Peak MAGA in 2020 (as measured by Trump and MAGA prevalence in bios) by jasonjonesresearch

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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