According to an investigation from the Network Contagion Research Institute, foreign and inauthentic networks use computer-generated social media users to spread misinformation to destabilize the right from within.
For example, in the recent shooting of the Jewish couple that worked for the Israeli Embassy in D.C., the bots took minutes to start circulating the claim that the attack was carried out by a conservative who yelled "Free Palestine!" in order to rile up the base.
That is called a "false flag," but dozens of posts waved it, and hundreds of thousands of the bots liked or reposted the misinformation, making it look like it had massive popular support.
Political analyst Bob Vander Plaats, president of The FAMiLY Leader, says that is a drawback of social media.
"Twitter's a world where people can just really drive false narratives," he submits. "Twitter has become middle school on steroids."
He says bots can be used to muddy the water in a political race by introducing completely unfounded doubt about a candidate.
"If you can control the narrative so it's of benefit to you ,that's a big deal in the world of politics – whether it be elections or in the world of policy," Vander Plaats asserts.
He advises the MAGA crowd to familiarize themselves with the signs that a comment or posting is a bot, like usage of a single phrase in multiple posts. He also says to verify.
"You've got to take a look at where's the source, where's it coming from," he says. "Once you find the source of where it's coming from, and the trusted source of where it's coming from, I always look for another source to try to verify it."
Not the Bee agrees, saying it is best to assume that anonymous accounts on the internet are not based conservatives until proven otherwise.
