"So there are bots that have been posting "porn" for a bunch of years. And now they post political messages." The article says accounts like this can be purcha

"So there are bots that have been posting "porn" for a bunch of years. And now they post political messages." The article says accounts like this can be purchased cheaply from resellers. "How does that influence anybody?" I think the most effective use is in replies to other tweets. All the replies to a tweet are shown if you look at a tweet. You might look at the profile of some user who makes a tweet, but perhaps won't take such a deep look at their profile to see the earlier porn tweets. High number of tweets, high number of followers, long time on the site would indicate 'actual person' rather than bot, or so you'd think without scrolling down far enough to see it filled with spam posts.