I’m sure some of it is organic but there have been times when I see a post and read the comments and they are all talking in a way that pushes a similar opinion. Then I see the same post reposted and notice the same accounts using the similar comments if not the exactly same. Often times being overly prepared with links and info dumping like a lot of effort was made to support their opinion. It is very sus.

We may not be able to verify when it is happening but we absolutely do know there are organized efforts to shape public opinion by using multiple accounts to push talking points. And this is done by many different types of organizations, from countries like China and Russia, but also by companies like Monsanto or the fossil fuel industry. It has been happening rampantly for years.

It is tough to say. But there are red flags. Like when an opinion on a post is repeated a lot by different accounts in the thread but are heavily downvoted and an opposing opinion is heavily upvoted.

This is what I would expect to see if bots brigading a thread are using unpopular talking points.

For example, I see it a lot with anti DNC threads with the same accounts posting similar comments throughout multiple reposts of a single post. If I had to assume what views they are trying to promote, I would say they seem to be trying to discourage democrats to vote by sowing apathy aka FUD.

It just has to be proportional. Reports on these bot farms have shown that they absolutely go into small niche areas to influence people. Facebook groups being one of the most notable that comes to mind.

So if a bunch of accounts on lemmy repeat an opinion that isn’t popular with people I meet IRL then that could be an attempt to change public opinion using bots on lemmy?