It's a wild combination, everything from bored Estonian teens getting money from clickbait to state-sponsored disinformation campaigns with specific intentions.

It's a wild combination, everything from bored Estonian teens getting money from clickbait to state-sponsored disinformation campaigns with specific intentions. The best writing about this IMHO is from Renee Diresta. She has papers, articles, talks, testified before congress, and founded the Internet Observatory project. Diresta co-wrote a very comprehensive report on the activities of the Russian "Internet Research Agency": http://www.reneediresta.com/ira-report-4e8d0ff684.pdf http://www.reneediresta.com/ira-report-4e8d0ff684.pdf It explains in gory detail how this "stuff" works when there are state actors involved.