I read an article a while back about ways to identify them. Another signal is if they have a bunch of numbers at the end of their name.

It just seem so off. Somethings not right.

You would be shocked at how much interaction that takes place on the web is Bot driven. I have a buddy that works for Oracle and it is big biz for him. Not for trolling per se, but for customer web interaction and sales, marketing. I promise we all interact with bots right here in DU. Definitely on many of the twitter feeds. Twitter is all Bots. I'd bet the lion's share of Twitter/tweets in general is Bot communication.

So am I right in saying, there is not a person doing those tweets, but a computer progame written that does it
automatically?? Or am I way off track.

Some DUers have actually posted analyses over the past year where you will see all these wild accounts retweeting some nonsense propaganda.

It is software, micro-services, and machines that are capable of learning. Take a look at this from Oracle, as mentioned previously:


http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/mobile/chatbots-primer-3899595.pdf



AI is everywhere. I've read an article or two on how AI could potentially replace 1/2 of ALL jobs in the next 10 years. While that may sound crazy and may be an over the top prediction, AI is very real and is already replacing workers at a rapid clip.

Man oh man, that looks so interesting, thanks for posting the link.

I'd shy away from or even block people with very few followers and following few. They jump in on both sides of an argument because sowing dissenison and disagreement is their goal, and they are very, very clever. Usually superb English as well.

Do they really think they will change anyone's mind?

There is a known psychological effect that 'works' to some extent of on a great many people wherein if they feel like 'everyone' thinks a certain way about something, they become more willing to accept it 'that way' is 'true'. Type of positive re-enforcement.

Not everyone can be influenced, and the idea is not that ONE troll account is going to impact one persons thinking, but a veritable army shouting the same message has a chance of changing some minds, but also STRENGTHENS conviction in people who already believe what the army ... says.

And as mentioned above, there are typically no real people involved, it's all AI and bot accounts. Twitter does next to nothing to make sure 'you're real' before letting you participate.

And if you can hoodwink people in media (Faux is especially gullible, fancy that) into showing the whole world your tweets, or get them to think 'hey we need to give this way of thinking credibility in our coverage since 1000's seem to feel this way' ... then you've really hit the jackpot. It's all about catapulting the propaganda.

Russians want everyone in US to believe that the Fake News Awards are SUUUUUUUUUUPER popular, basically.

Cause the only one who hates the pesky media more than Dump ... is his master Vlad.

on other sites I get really discouraged. I can't believe there are that many people out there that really think that way, but maybe there really aren't. However, it never changes my mind. It only makes me more determined to fight them. I just hope other people have the same reaction. Some of the comments are so sickening.

Thank you for the explanation.