As companies yank their ads from Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham's show in droves, she continues to draw support from one key Twitter demographic: Russian bots. *** On Saturday evening, #istandwithlaura was the top trending hashtag among Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations, according to Hamilton 68, a website launched last year that tracks Russian propaganda campaigns in near-real time.
Per the site's data, the frequency with which the accounts tweeted the hashtag jumped by 2800% on Friday and Saturday.
What does it say about an American political pundit whose staunchest defenders are not only not human, but are Russian tools designed specifically to disrupt American Democracy?
Meanwhile, according to the website botcheck.me, which says it tracks 1500 "political propaganda bots," @ingrahamangle, @davidhogg11, and @foxnews
were among the top six Twitter handles Russia-linked accounts tweeted
at over the last 24 hours. The top two-word phrases were "David Hogg"
and "Laura Ingraham."
At least we know whose side the Russians are on in the debate on
regulating assault weapons used to kill American children. That should
make Ingraham’s supporters at FOX News and in the NRA feel warm and
fuzzy, shouldn’t it?
Russian-linked accounts' capitalization on the Ingraham controversy
comes after they flooded Twitter with pro-gun messages and
disinformation following the Parkland school shooting, which claimed 17 lives in February.
Just keep on attacking those high school kids, Comrade Laura. Vlad has your back.
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