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The point of these bots isn't to spread disinformation or to amplify political content (the article is wrong about this). The point of these bots is to build u

The point of these bots isn't to spread disinformation or to amplify political content (the article is wrong about this). The point of these bots is to build up an account with credible behavior that you can use to make money (usually by scamming advertisers into buying paid tweets/followers, or by directly promoting scam products). Political twitter is so formulaic and high volume that bot/sweatshop posts don't seem out of place compared to the usual traffic from real accounts. If there were no politics on twitter they'd just send formulaic messages about pop culture or sports or something.

dobleboble 7y ago
You make a bold claim, do you have any supporting evidence?
- luckylion 7y ago
  Wasn't this somewhat well documented during 2016 where most of it wasn't some coordinated attack from St. Petersburg but teens from south-eastern Europe making money from ads and therefore driving clickbait to its limit because they literally just wanted clicks?
  - chance_state 7y ago
    >most of it wasn't some coordinated attack from St. Petersburg This is completely false. A cursory search will yield results explaining Russia's massive effort on social media (and Twitter in particular) to interfere in the election. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/2016-election-update.html https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/2016-elec... https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2017/Update-Russian-Interference-in-2016--Election-Bots-and-Misinformation.html https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2017/Update-Ru... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/19/twitter-admits-far-more-russian-bots-posted-on-election-than-it-had-disclosed https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/19/twitter-a... etc....
    - bronipstid 7y ago
      That article says 50,000 accounts were "linked to Russia". Do you know who linked them to Russia and by what criteria? They weren't actually controlled by the Russian government because the article cites that figure at only 3,000. The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point.
      - chance_state 7y ago
        >The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point. You're calling it "hysteria" to dismiss facts you don't like. "The Russian Hoax!", where have I heard that before? But, to your second point, I completely agree that many on the left want to pretend it was _mostly_ because of foreign interference. I tend to think that had a pretty small impact, and the fact you pointed out is probably much more consequential: Americans are more receptive to a populist message than people think.
        FillardMillmore 7y ago
        Not to be too pedantic, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think "The Russian Hoax" more specifically refers to the beliefs/claims by some that Trump or his campaign was colluding with Russia directly to interfere with the election rather than simply the belief/claim/fact that Russia (or Russians) interfered in the election of their own volition.
        HenryBemis 7y ago
        I 'like' it so much (not really) when people from the USA say/write "left" when they have absolutely no idea what left/communism is, apart from what they HEAR. I don't think that more than 1mil people in the USA have lived in the USSR block or the countries of their influence, or have studied communism thoroughly. And you can recognize the trolls when one says/writes "Left" in the most capitalistic country on this planet. And by "Left" they mean the very minimal/basic social services, such as don't let people lose two legs but only one because the $1k insurance per month doesn't cover that. I wonder how failed is the USA when countries in EU have achieved that with $100 contributions per month. Miracle!!! Americans live with the dream that they are all billionaire but somebody is blocking them (the commies, the socialists, the left, the Cubans, the anarchists, and in general "they" some without ID). Russia always plays the looooong game, they try and succeed to sabotage a little bit every step of the way (antivaxers, interference with elections, oil price), you name it, they are in it. I think I vented/ranted enough. I sometimes feel sorry for the 30-40% of USA citizens, they are confused and haven't read more than 10 books in their lives.. it's a potty for such a prosperous coubtry to suffer like this.

dobleboble 7y ago

You make a bold claim, do you have any supporting evidence?

luckylion 7y ago
Wasn't this somewhat well documented during 2016 where most of it wasn't some coordinated attack from St. Petersburg but teens from south-eastern Europe making money from ads and therefore driving clickbait to its limit because they literally just wanted clicks?
- chance_state 7y ago
  >most of it wasn't some coordinated attack from St. Petersburg This is completely false. A cursory search will yield results explaining Russia's massive effort on social media (and Twitter in particular) to interfere in the election. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/2016-election-update.html https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/2016-elec... https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2017/Update-Russian-Interference-in-2016--Election-Bots-and-Misinformation.html https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2017/Update-Ru... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/19/twitter-admits-far-more-russian-bots-posted-on-election-than-it-had-disclosed https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/19/twitter-a... etc....
  - bronipstid 7y ago
    That article says 50,000 accounts were "linked to Russia". Do you know who linked them to Russia and by what criteria? They weren't actually controlled by the Russian government because the article cites that figure at only 3,000. The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point.
    - chance_state 7y ago
      >The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point. You're calling it "hysteria" to dismiss facts you don't like. "The Russian Hoax!", where have I heard that before? But, to your second point, I completely agree that many on the left want to pretend it was _mostly_ because of foreign interference. I tend to think that had a pretty small impact, and the fact you pointed out is probably much more consequential: Americans are more receptive to a populist message than people think.
      - FillardMillmore 7y ago
        Not to be too pedantic, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think "The Russian Hoax" more specifically refers to the beliefs/claims by some that Trump or his campaign was colluding with Russia directly to interfere with the election rather than simply the belief/claim/fact that Russia (or Russians) interfered in the election of their own volition.
      - HenryBemis 7y ago
        I 'like' it so much (not really) when people from the USA say/write "left" when they have absolutely no idea what left/communism is, apart from what they HEAR. I don't think that more than 1mil people in the USA have lived in the USSR block or the countries of their influence, or have studied communism thoroughly. And you can recognize the trolls when one says/writes "Left" in the most capitalistic country on this planet. And by "Left" they mean the very minimal/basic social services, such as don't let people lose two legs but only one because the $1k insurance per month doesn't cover that. I wonder how failed is the USA when countries in EU have achieved that with $100 contributions per month. Miracle!!! Americans live with the dream that they are all billionaire but somebody is blocking them (the commies, the socialists, the left, the Cubans, the anarchists, and in general "they" some without ID). Russia always plays the looooong game, they try and succeed to sabotage a little bit every step of the way (antivaxers, interference with elections, oil price), you name it, they are in it. I think I vented/ranted enough. I sometimes feel sorry for the 30-40% of USA citizens, they are confused and haven't read more than 10 books in their lives.. it's a potty for such a prosperous coubtry to suffer like this.