1000+ Bots Pushed Pro-Trump Tweets During Debate

Via press release:

More than 1,000 accounts with suspicious, bot-like characteristics helped push quote tweets, a tweet that is retweeted but additional text is added, from Donald Trump campaign accounts during the third primary debate, according to an analysis by social media intelligence company Storyful.

Those tweets accounted for the top 3 most-shared links on social media during the debate. Despite attempts by social media companies to weed out malicious behavior online, automated accounts are still driving a large part of the social conversation around political events.

Storyful analyzed a total of 1.4 million posts made to public mainstream social platforms over 7 hours before, during and after the debate. The top 3 tweets, which came from legitimate accounts, together received over 15,500 retweets, thanks in large part to activity from accounts that demonstrated bot-like or automated behaviors.

The original tweets came from @TeamTrump and @TrumpWarRoom.