Russian Bots Flooded Twitter After Shooting

[RandySF]

EACH NEW BREAKING news situation is an opportunity for trolls to grab attention, provoke emotions, and spread propaganda. The Russian government knows this. Fake-news manufacturing teenagers in Macedonia know this. Twitter bot creators know this. And thanks to data-gathering operations from groups like the Alliance for Securing Democracy and RoBhat Labs, the world knows this.

In the wake of Wednesday’s Parkland, Florida school shooting, which resulted in 17 deaths, troll and bot-tracking sites reported an immediate uptick in related tweets from political propaganda bots and Russia-linked Twitter accounts. Hamilton 68, a website created by Alliance for Securing Democracy, tracks Twitter activity from accounts it has identified as linked to Russian influence campaigns. As of morning, shooting-related terms dominated the site’s trending hashtags and topics, including Parkland, guncontrolnow, Florida, guncontrol, and Nikolas Cruz, the name of the alleged shooter. Popular trending topics among the bot network include shooter, NRA, shooting, Nikolas, Florida, and teacher.

On RoBhat Labs' Botcheck.me, a website created by two Berkeley students to track 1500 political propaganda bots, all of the top two-word phrases used in the last 24 hours—excluding President Trump's name—are related to the tragedy: School shooting, gun control, high school, Florida school. The top hashtags from the last 24 hours include Parkland, guncontrol, and guncontrolnow.


https://www.wired.com/story/pro-gun-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/

[Hekate]

1. Both Twitter & FaceBook are failing in their duty as Americans. If they won't clean up their act...

...they need serious regulatory oversight.

Oh who am I kidding -- all our regulatory agencies are collapsing under Trump and the GOP.

[OnDoutside]

2. But that's the angle to hit Twitter and Facebook on.... UnAmerican

They've sold out the people for money blah blah blah. They're giving your precious information away to the enemy etc. People turning away from them is currently the only way to get change

[pnwmom]

3. Only the most concerned progressives will turn away -- which will leave the bots free

to propagandize most of Twitter and FB without any interference.

[OnDoutside]

4. It's the corporate embarrassment factor is the key.... take a leaf from

the Republican playbook, keep on repeating that Facebook and Twitter are betraying the American people by not stopping Russian influence. The democrats can't force change otherwise, as far as I can see.