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by paggle
2482 days ago
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Well it’s quite in fashion these days to call any person you disagree with a “bot.” Even though my Twitter account is very old I’ve been accused of being a “Russian bot” nearly every time I post something that diverges from the political “Standard Model.” I suppose it’s easier to manage life if you think that everyone real agrees with you and everyone who disagrees with you is a Perl script running in Vladivostok. |
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On the other hand, I know of one "user" on The Hill, that is a known Russian troll farm of some sort (not necessarily based in Russia entirely); I've caught it talking with itself in Russian, I've also seen it posting - simultaneously - both liberal and conservative talking points in different threads at the same moment in time. Tone, spelling, and grammar are also different - especially at different times of the day. It also goes offline every now and again. Others on the forums over there have noticed that same thing.
I've carried on multiple "conversation" threads with it, and it can be both intriguing, knowledgable, and ignorant depending on when you "catch" it (ie - whomever is typing on the other end).
I've made multiple attempts to figure it out - talking with it, at it, etc - and it has never disclaimed that it is a collective or not based in Russia. I am not sure what or who it is - some suspect some arm of the IRA, but it could be anything.
I don't call it a bot, because there are real humans behind it. I am not actually sure they are all Russian, because it's english is quite good at times, though I have seen hints of both British and American spellings, idioms, knowledge, etc. I suspect it's some kind of global operation, probably with paid actors of some sort.
I've only rarely have seen anything online in such forums or elsewhere that looks and acts like an actual "bot".