Interesting! this was on 21st January in the Guardian
"
Twitter admits far more Russian bots posted on election than it had disclosed
Company says it removed more than 50,000 accounts and reported them to investigators, marking latest upward revision of figures
Twitter has admitted that more than 50,000 Russia-linked accounts used its service to post automated material about the 2016 US election – a far greater number than previously disclosed.
Announcing the discovery in
a post to its website late on Friday, the company said the posts had reached at least 677,775 Americans, all of whom would be receiving a warning by email.
Twitter said it had removed the 50,258 accounts linked to
Russia and turned over details to congressional investigators who are looking into Moscow’s interference with the US election campaign."
Now we have this claim from the Sunday Times
"
The Sunday Times
said an investigation it conducted in conjunction with Swansea University had identified 6,500 Russian accounts tweeting supportive messages for Labour and denigrating the Conservatives.
It said that many of the accounts, masquerading under English names, were internet "bots" programmed to bombard voters with orchestrated political messages.
Labour dismissed the report saying that it was not aware of receiving any support from automated bots during the campaign.
A spokesman said the party "categorically" did not pay for any automated bots and was not aware of any of its supporters doing so.
The Sunday Times said it discovered overwhelming support for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn from the Russian social media accounts with nine out of 10 messages about the party supporting its campaign.
Its research found that 80% of the automated accounts had been created in the weeks leading up to polling day on June 8 and were particularly active at key points in the campaign.
Apparently there are worse Russian Bots out there than Trump!
Assuming this to be true, somehow the Press will be busting a blood vessel trying to prove Corbyn asked for their support.
The sheer cheek of Foreigners attempting to influence Public opinion is breathtaking,when we already have Murdoch to do that, thank you very much!
Why this sort of thing could undermine the power of the Press to pervert public opinion!
My take is that this is just another attack on Social Media, and these sort of bot messages are nothing new,certainly not as harmful as Cambridge Analytica
