COVID’aganda, ‘Bots, Sock Puppets, Algorithms, and F2F Organizing (JRS + BUSINESS INSIDER)

Publisher’s note: A Vermont neighbor, a staunch supporter of Republican Governor Phil Scott’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order in place since mid-March, emailed us this Business Insider article this morning with the jokey question – “are you a ‘bot”?” This neighbor was responding to online discussions re;:our COVID EMPIRE series and Facebook discussions in which we encouraged our readers to 1) question and research the official WHO/CDC COVID-19 narrative, and 2) consider the trade-offs inherent in the government mandated “lockdown” policy – lives lost to the “coronavirus” versus lives compromised (and perhaps lost) by the “lockdown” in the form of stress, anxiety, mental anguish, and loss of livelihoods and economic independence. This article, entitled – “Trolls, Bots Flooding Social Media With Anti-Quarantine Disinformation” – explored the role of social media “disinformation campaigns” in pressing states and the federal government to “end the quarantine.” The article itself, which seems decidedly pro-lockdown, is a fascinating illustration of how US tribalized politics intersect with news, media, censorship, civil liberties, and the demonizing of “foreign actors” like Russia and China, accusations reminiscent of the #RussiaGate2016 conspiracy theory flogged by the neoliberal globalists and their media minions for years before being discredited. We’ve posted a portion of the article here. What’s curious about the accompanying visuals? Actual Americans organizing in real spaces, many of them heavily armed, to indicate their support for same message promoted the “disinformation campaigns” online, like these Michiganders below. While we at Vermont Independent don’t have a dog in the US tribalized imperial fight, we DO believe in the importance of 1) asking questions; 2) conducting research and discussion; and 3) considering the very real trade offs inherent in ANY policy approach to ANY pandemic – including COVID-19. Failure to do so quickly leads us down the road to CoronAuthoritarianism. Meanwhile, Joe Rogan talks with online YouTube indy newscaster Tim Pool about increasing online censorship of independent journalists who don’t conform to “official narratives” – the first hour is particularly compelling. Free Vermont!

Videos of protesters around the nation demanding their governors reopen businesses have been all over social media over the past week or so, and Donald Trump has offered pseudo-encouragement by tweeting that they need to “liberate” states like Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. The same rhetoric that is being used at these protests has been spreading like wildfire on social media as bots and trolls attempt to use disinformation to get states to reopen. 

Christopher Bouzy, the founder of bot tracking platform Bot Sentinel, conducted a Twitter analysis for Business Insider and found bots and trolls are using hashtags like #ReOpenNC, #ReopenAmericaNow, #StopTheMadness, #ENDTHESHUTDOWN, and #OperationGridlock to spread disinformation. According to Bouzy, the bots and trolls are spreading conspiracy theories about Democrats wanting to hurt the economy to make Trump look bad, Democrats trying to take away people’s civil liberties, and Democrats trying to prevent people from voting. The accounts are also using false data to underplay the threat of the coronavirus. 

“We use machine learning and artificial intelligence to classify accounts,” Bouzy says. “Back in 2018, I trained the initial model using 2,500 normal Twitter accounts, and 2500 inauthentic accounts I was tracking for several months. Approximately 5,000,000 tweets were used to create the first model.”

“Inauthentic accounts are amplifying disinformation and inaccurate statistics and sharing false information as a reason to reopen the country,” Bouzy says. “Many of these accounts are also spreading bizarre conspiracy theories about Democrats using COVID-19 as a way to take away American freedoms and prevent Americans from voting.”

When reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson disputed the idea that the company is allowing bots and trolls to spread disinformation on its platform, and criticized Bot Sentinel’s methodology, which uses publicly available information from the company. Ironically, Twitter pointed to its bi-yearly “transparency report,” which supposedly uses unreleased private data, as a superior indicator of bot activity, but it only provides general figures on how many spam challenges and reports the platform sees.

“With respect to COVID-19, we’re prioritizing content that contains a call to action that could cause potential physical harm,” the spokesperson said. “Under these our expanded policies, we’ve removed more than 2,200 Tweets. As we’ve doubled down on tech, our automated systems have challenged more than 3.4 million accounts which were targeting discussions around COVID-19 with spammy or manipulative behaviors.”