Define "internet people": 1. sock puppet 1 sends meme X to sock puppet 2 2. bot 1...10000 send meme X to various other bots, sock puppets, and possibly human

Define "internet people": 1. sock puppet 1 sends meme X to sock puppet 2 2. bot 1...10000 send meme X to various other bots, sock puppets, and possibly human recipients 3. human 1 reads meme X from bot 1337 4. human 2 reads repost of meme X from human 1 Do the researchers have a methodology to keep these separate in their analyses? Here's a simple example-- what would keep the researchers from counting "Samy is our hero" as an example of lightning speed message syncronization of social media users? If the answer is that a third party told them it wasn't that, their methodology seems quite brittle and subject to error. Especially considering that today's manipulation is vastly more sophisticated, insidious, and weaponized.