Busted: Pro-Trump Twitter bot army already bashing DeSantis

An energetic army of pro-Trump Twitter bots is already gushing heaps of praise on the former president and scorching likely rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to cyber research shared with Associated Press.

Over the past year, thousands of fake, automated Twitter accounts — possibly "hundreds of thousands" of them — were created to boost fake hype for Trump, AP reported Monday.

Whoever created the bot network — which is actually three networks combined — is hoping to plant a "thumb on the scale" showing falsified support for Trump, noted AP. It's similar to the tactic the Kremlin used to manipulate social media in a bid to give Trump an advantage with American voters in the 2016 election.

While social media platforms enacted several safeguards so that wouldn't happen, it's uncertain if new Twitter CEO Elon Musk has the expertise to keep the platform honest.

Just as what occurred in the 2016 campaign, “our understanding of what is mainstream Republican sentiment for 2024 is being manipulated by the prevalence of bots online,” cyber researchers from the Cyabra company told AP.

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