Researchers Discover Coordinated Network of Bots and Agitators Spamming Instagram with Anti-Trump Messaging; The Ringleaders Can Expect to be Banned Feted with Wine and Roses

Why do I get this feeling that bots are going to get a sudden Second Look from the media?

Researchers have identified what they are calling a coordinated campaign to undermine President Trump on Instagram, an effort that bears hallmarks of the disinformation campaigns that proliferated on the platform in 2016.

A recently published study by Italian analytics firm Ghost Data identified a network of 350 anti-Trump accounts coordinating efforts to promote messages deriding the president, sometimes with graphic or violent language. The researchers found 19 suspicious Instagram accounts that took the lead in promoting anti-Trump content.

In total, the posts from the accounts generated have more than 35.2 million interactions, with 3.9 million of those interactions occurring in the last two months. The study concluded that the anti-Trump Instagram campaign has ramped up over the past several months, with the network's activities swelling "dramatically" since April.

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Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, said in a statement that it is "investigating the accounts in question and have already removed those that we’ve found to violate our policies."

Yeah, I'm sure you'll be right on that.

Say, why is it that an outside firm had to alert you to this situation, whereas your employees are working diligently on their own initiative to find a pretext to ban Candace Owens?

posted by Ace of Spades at 07:23 PM

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