Additionally, you can train a human to become better at astroturfing over time, and train your network as a whole to be resilient to partial takedowns. These t

Additionally, you can train a human to become better at astroturfing over time, and train your network as a whole to be resilient to partial takedowns. These things are much easier to orchestrate than bots, especially if your specialization is not CS but scamming / manipulating opinions, and in many cases, especially with scale, human labor can actually be more expensive. Of course, subsidizing the labor to impoverished countries definitely helps; these networks tend to lack the sophistication used in more sensitive political or industrial topics. Sometimes for national or global campaigns you'll find a mix of both cheap labor, a small team of experienced astroturfers with a good grip on their persona acquisition and management, and bot networks, each targeting a different set of demographics. If your target demo is sufficiently ignorant or radicalized in their beliefs, it doesn't take much to convince them and bots will do just fine.