I believe there is a bit of confusion in the public discussion, mostly of the 2016 election: While “bots” featured large in initial discussions, the details th

I believe there is a bit of confusion in the public discussion, mostly of the 2016 election: While “bots” featured large in initial discussions, the details that have emerged since, especially in the recent indictment, actually point at software-assisted humans as the main avenue for these activities. I believe the “bot” monicker because (a) it’s how most people would tackle the task, perhaps ignoring the cheap labor pool this shadowy PR operation had access to, and (b) the bot-like behavior exhibited by many of these accounts, which was actually a result of not being native speakers, following a script, and having no deeper knowledge of politics and culture to fall back on.