Posted on 04/09/2016 2:33:28 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
If youve spent any time on social media, particularly in the politicalsphere, chances are youve encountered an internet troll or two. This election cycle has been er, um interesting. I never thought Id long for the days the so-called Paulbots would troll my feeds lecturing me about liberty and the Constitution and Dr. Paul. At least most of those accounts were real. Alas
Not so in 2016.
The Trumpbots, or accounts that seem to exist solely to attack those with unfavorable views of The Donald, are a special breed of vicious. Ive learned its best to ignore, block, and move on. Why waste time on people, or bots rather, not interested in positive engagement, I say.
Ive also suspected there was a concerted effort to derail conversation on social media and to attempt to fluster influencers. It all reeked of some kind of psychological web warfare. Turns out, I might have been right.
Sure, Trump pulls in around a third of the Republican primary vote now, but its curious that he had an overwhelming appearance of support right out of the gate. The reader may remember Trumps campaign was busted paying individuals to attend his early rallies.
These Trumpbots are behave especially hostile towards Ted Cruz. Professor Jacobson has encountered what was likely the working of the Trump botnet on more than one occasion, It seems that every time our Twitter account gets involuntarily looped into some endless stream of vicious anti-Cruz tweeting, typically because weve retweeted something pro-Cruz by a well-known person, the relentless pro-Trump protagonist is someone with very few followers, but thousands of tweets, he said.
Yesterday, Digital Analyst, Patrick Ruffini began digging into a score of Twitter accounts that seem to explain this bizarre Trump/social media phenomena. It might also explain the consistent skew in online polling (read: Drudge Poll).
Earlier this week, Jason Taylor, blogging at Medium, explained how its possible to procure around 500,000 aged Twitter accounts to create a botnet:
From my years on Twitter Ive ran many campaigns against in what I believed to be wrong, and unjust. I have years of knowledge on how to run multiple Twitter accounts, and how to go about getting those. Its not as simple as going out, creating an email account and then starting a Twitter account, not if youre talking about five hundred thousand accounts. And, brand spanking new Twitter accounts wont cut it, they get suspended to easy. You need aged accounts, accounts that have been steeping for at least five years.
There are many places to go on the dark web to buy Twitter accounts that also come with email addresses, thats where Team Trump went.
These aged accounts are not cheap, to amass half a million of those youre looking at some real cash, not that Trump doesnt have it, but you need planning and someone well versed in social media to put this plan into action. Im sure that the Trump Team new the power of Twitter long before he ever jumped in the race for President.
With these Twitter accounts, Facebook, and an email account to go along with each one; its no surprise he (Trump) wins every online poll. Trump has tried to control the narrative from the start, and hes done a pretty good job of it, up until now. This was well thought out, and executed the way a general might map out a war.
These Twitter accounts are easy to spot, accounts that are dated 2009 to 2012, with few followers and a solid line of Donald Trump propaganda. There are real people running these Twitter accounts, mostly from the middle east, using VPNs and Proxys to hide from United States Twitter. Erick Erickson too explored Trumps manufactured support and the troll accounts that harass him via email or call into his radio show insisting he said something anti-Trump when Erickson wasnt even on the air he was on holiday.
Last Tuesday night, my radio show saw a wave of callers calling in to complain about what I was saying that very night on radio. The callers assured my call screener they were listening. The calls were coming from area codes all over the nation and they were very angry about what I had just said on the radio that very night about Trump.
I was on vacation. The guest host had been talking about local matters and had not even mentioned Trump. Hello, seminar callers. Likewise, many of the calls to my radio station demanding I be fired or disciplined for insulting Trump have come from people making statements about my radio show that clearly indicate they have not listened to the show or the station.
Similarly, whenever I get a wave of emails attacking me for things about Trump, frequently the same IP address pops up. On Twitter, the waves come from people with rarely used or new Twitter accounts that are suddenly all in for Trump every tweet an attack against someone or Trump propaganda. More often than not, the accounts have pictures of someone other than the the person tweeting and most do not use real names.
Certainly it could be people with low social connectedness, as Michael Barone has noted, but it sure seems odd to suddenly get a a wave of #whitegenocide tweets from accounts that are just suddenly active and all in to attack people who oppose Trump.
And then theres the news site, pushing nothing but pro-Trump propaganda that originated from Macedonia?
In the wake of the Wisconsin primary, for example, supporters of Donald Trump took to social media posting what appeared to be valid news reports making fraudulent claims that electronic voting machines in Wisconsin were switching from Donald Trump to Ted Cruz.
This particular fake story appears to have originated at UnitedMediaPublishing.com, and was distributed ad nauseum all over social media. But the bogus story or a variation of it was additionally cited at many other pro-Trump propaganda websites, which were also shared repeatedly on social media.
An analysis prepared by John Daniels, editor-in-chief of Tavernkeepers.com and exclusively relayed to the Examiner examined numerous news sites. Daniels determined that the following pro-Trump propaganda sites sprung up in only the past several months from Macedonia, a nation bordering Greece. Using the website ICANN WHOIS, Daniels was able to determine the registrar, origination date and location of these websites:
1) Usanewsflash.com 2) 365usanews.com 3) worldnewspolitics.com 4) Usapoliticsonline.com 5) worldpoliticus.com 6) USAdailypolitics.com
Articles about fake voter fraud in Wisconsin and claims that Ted Cruz will be dropping out of the presidential race (he is not) were posted at all of the above sites. They linked back to other pro-Trump sites such as thepoliticalinsider.com, thegatewaypundit.com and endingthefed.com.
Included in the slideshow above is this excerpt from Trumps The Art of the Deal where he discusses creating a perception to close a deal:
My leverage came from confirming an impression they were already predisposed to believe, wrote Trump.
Smart politics or gutter-dwelling tactics? Doesnt really matter at this point because it worked.,
That was funny. All your base are belong to us.,. From the ancient past.
I'd like to go back in time, like five years ago, and say to them "In a few years, you're going to swear undying political loyalty to an east coast leftist billionaire - he's currently totally pro-abortion and gives money to Hillary and Schumer and Pelosi - he supports universal health care and the Kelo decision - he brags about bribing politicians to get special favors and banging his friend's wives... but he's going to say he changed his mind on all that and you will TOTALLY believe him, sans any actual evidence whatsoever!"
They'll never believe me.
It's an alien virus brought to earth's atmosphere by a meteorite.
The Trumps supporters are REAL Americans tired of the corrupt status quo in our government and understand Cruz is not the principled conservative he sold us.
The left/GOPe/enemedia are trying to explain it away using Alinsky tactics claiming astro-turf tactics coming from Trump.
Problem is, that is just not true, in fact, the agitators out there on social media and others, are working for the uniparty in some manner trying to thwart the will of most Americans.
People need to open their eyes to all the deception the Dems/GOPe/enemedia is throwing at us.
CGato
*grin*
More likely we are attacked first, but hey you stick to your narrative.
Do tell.
What is left to discuss? After repeated 24/7 corrupt MSM interviews, Trump bio specials, endless corrupt debate game shows, endless stories, endless articles, dozens of Trump speeches, dozens of rallies et al.
What is this positive engagement BS?
This entire article is nothing but yet another attempt to discredit Trump and millions of his supporters.
Lets talk about the endless Trump hit piece articles by all the right enemies.
What is LI ?
Perhaps some affiliates rebroadcast old show.
Do ya have any idea what an ignorant analogy that is?
Wow...
Shall I post some pics of the corrupt politicians holding rallies at what appear to be half full adult day care activity rooms?
I read half way through and saw plenty of accusation and innuendo, but not one fact.
In other words, a smear article.
Legal Insurrection, a conservative legal news site.
“More Jump Trump crap.”
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More like “unmask Trumpbot troll” campaigns. We’ve seen our share here, IMHO.
They must be Trolls!
It seems most pronounced within the Cruz camp.
Sad, really.
It can’t be because America is circling the drain....
Cool, thanks for making my point.
Except that there is a pronounced disassociation from reality when it comes to defending the antics of Ted Cruz.
I like the comments from Cruz folks saying, “Trumps playing catch up now” or “Trump wasn’t prepared for this election”, et al.
When someone comments, “But Trump is winning” and they head for the tall grass in cyber land real quick.
What a farce they are. Tokyo Rose would be proud.
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