During the two debates, 100's of bots pushed divisive racial content targeted at Kamala Harris

[bigtree]

Eliza Collins @elizacollins1 19h
Hundreds of bot-like social media accounts pushed divisive racial content, particularly targeted at ⁦@KamalaHarris during the last two sets of debates.

Data shows suspicious social-media accounts targeted Kamala Harris, including with conspiracy theories, during both Democratic gatherings

____Hundreds of social-media accounts with bot-like traits promoted misinformation and content aimed at inflaming racial divisions during both nights of Democratic presidential debates, continuing similar activity during the first set of debates last month, according to data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.

The bot-like activity on Tuesday and Wednesday nights was consistent with online discussions around Sen. Kamala Harris’s ethnicity during the first Democratic debate, indicating both Ms. Harris, who is black, and racial issues as key targets for bot-like accounts during the 2020 election campaign.

During the second debate, conservative actor and comedian Terrence K. Williams tweeted #KamalaHarrisDestroyed after Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard lit into Ms. Harris’s record as a prosecutor, saying she had been unfairly aggressive during her tenure. Ms. Harris disputed the charge onstage, saying she was proud of what she had accomplished as a prosecutor, which included time as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general. Mr. Williams’s tweet took off, garnering more than 12,000 retweets as of Thursday morning, but the Storyful analysis found hundreds of the accounts retweeting the post had questionable characteristics.

In the first round of Democratic debates in June, an exchange between former Vice President Joe Biden and Ms. Harris put racial issues in sharp focus when Mr. Biden was criticized for his record on busing and for past comments about working with segregationist senators. Tweets questioning Ms. Harris’s ethnicity, saying that she “is not black,” were circulated by bot-like accounts. The activity followed a series of tweets by Mr. Alexander claiming that Ms. Harris “is *not* an American Black. She is half Indian and half Jamaican.” Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son, shared that tweet and then deleted it.

While it couldn’t be determined who is behind such accounts, they are used to disseminate misinformation. Researchers say malicious actors exploit the anonymity accorded by social media to create legions of bots that flood platforms with an identical hashtag, or retweet of a post, which can artificially boost a topic’s popularity. Russian actors used such accounts to influence the U.S. election in 2016.


read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bots-pushed-divisive-content-misinformation-on-race-during-debates-11564678048

Link to tweet

[SidDithers]

1. Leave Tulsi alone!!1!1!1...nt

Sid

[watoos]

2. Russia is targeting Kamala Harris,

they don't want Harris to run against Trump.

[bigtree]

4. yes, they are

Link to tweet

[Guilded Lilly]

3. We should not be surprised. The hate, racism and misogyny in this country

Will use social media to the fullest extent to spread the wretchedness.
We must continue to be vocal and just as adamant about spreading truth. Even more so actually.
And call out the damned ratings hungry, reality Show mentality media.
Not an easy task but the risks of losing are too destructive to our country and humanity.

[RockRaven]

5. Trump and Putin fear her more than the rest.

Honestly, bot armies attacking a candidate is a sign to give that candidate a serious look and see what the bot-masters are so worried about.

[real Cannabis calm]

6. K&R, Although, I'm will not guess at an Ex-KGB agent's motives, I agree w/ this:

"Honestly, bot armies attacking a candidate is a sign to give that candidate a serious look and see what the bot-masters are so worried about."

[bigtree]

7. I like the sound of that

...

"Honestly, bot armies attacking a candidate is a sign to give that candidate a serious look and see what the bot-masters are so worried about."

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Malcohm Nance

said the GRU would use Gabbard as their stalking Horse against Harris. Now we are seeing it in real time.

After the Racist Accused Rapist's phone call to his master Vlad the other day,watch for these GRU Bots just go nuts.

[highplainsdem]

9. The first night of the debate, bots were pushing the hashtag #DemDebateSoWhite

The hashtag #DemDebateSoWhite was tweeted Tuesday night by an account from a user with the name Susannah Faulkner and then shared by conservative activist Ali Alexander. The hashtag received thousands of interactions, but a Storyful analysis found a high number of the accounts using the hashtag had bot-like characteristics. The original tweet appears to have been taken down, but the hashtag continued circulate on Twitter .

The Democratic field of 24 candidates is the most diverse in the party’s history, but the candidates onstage for Tuesday night’s debate, selected by random draw, were all white. On Wednesday night half the stage consisted of nonwhite candidates.

So the aim the first night was, probably, to suppress the black vote for Democratic candidates.

The second night's bot attack was aimed at Harris.

[emulatorloo]

10. Yeah this is one of the things Russian bots did in 2016. Stir up racial divides in order to

suppress turnout for the Democratic candidate.

[mcar]

11. Russia is afraid of Harris

that's for sure.