Yooper
Up. Identified. Lase. Fire. On the way.
Yes, I could see it was from Carnegie-Mellon. However.... I've found that academic institutions occasionally/sometimes/often have an agenda.The article is from CMU, not a news outlet. Their methodology didn't go looking for a specific narrative. They looked for bot activity and analyzed the content of the most influential and most active bots. This was one of their findings. Are you suggesting they found evidence of "stay-at-home" bot activity and are not reporting it? If so, what's your rationale. Even more importantly, if they had found it, that would be further indication that bot activity has increased to sow more division in the population.
You shouldn't be looking at this through a political lens. It's a national security issue.
As far the "most influential," "active" (etc.) I noticed the release didn't define what exactly that means. It certainly sounds impressive, but once one gets past the "wow" of the statement there's not much there. Actually, there's not anything there..., without the other side being addressed.
I'm not saying the release says they found evidence of "stay at home" bots, I'm saying they didn't even address that side of the question beyond hinting at it toward the beginning of the release. As far as looking at the story through a political lens I think this comment is better directed to the authors of the release as they made it (intentionally or otherwise) political by failing to note the other side of the coin. In other words, this release carries a very distinct and not at all subtle message that "reopening" is being championed by bots and therefore those who champion reopening are equally mindless. Perhaps, I grant, the problem could be me....
Yes, CMU is very reputable, but it - to my mind - did itself no favors in the presentation of this story. Almost as if the authors were so insulated that they didn't realize (or see it as important to note) that perhaps there was another side of the story that needed to be addressed in at least the most minimal of fashion?
--- End of line (MCP)