this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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I Dared Defend Canada on X. The Response Was Chilling (thetyee.ca)
submitted 3 days ago by breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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Rattled by a horde of MAGA trolls, here’s what I learned about today’s social media miasma.

Last Friday I made a post on Bluesky and X, concerning U.S. President Donald Trump’s description of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor.” It occurred to me that, numb as we are to Trump’s stream of blather, the importance of that remark was being overlooked. It was an overt declaration by the president of the United States that he does not recognize Canadian sovereignty. That’s scary.

So, my post: “For a US president to refer to the Prime Minister of Canada as ‘Governor’ isn’t just rude. It’s a hostile act.”

The post got little attention on Bluesky. On X, for whatever reason, it went berserk. Over the weekend it racked up close to 3,000 reposts, over 29,000 “likes” and more than 5,000 replies. Those replies came almost entirely from Trump-loving trolls, piling scorn and abuse on my concerns. “Yeah but it’s Canada so who gives a fuck?” said one.

Do the responses represent a genuine glimpse of U.S. opinion on Trump’s bully-boy act?

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[–] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Also, Twitter has a lot of bots. More than ever before. This shapes discussion in many ways. Most basically, posts meeting certain narratives get more upvotes, quote tweets, etc. resulting in an algorithmic boost. Add in Xitter's desire to "boost engagement" by bidding controversial content. Finally, so many people are leaving Xitter, or at least using it less at it's quality declines.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thanks. I don't use Twitter, so it's good to hear what's going on over there.

[–] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I still have my Xitter account and pop in now and then. It's declining steadily. It's just weird if you step back and look at the difference in discussions on different topics, combined with what gets boosted. They've locked down their API Access, so it's harder for researchers to measure, but it's my impression that it's got to be over 50% bots.

I'm sure most of that is going to be old school, using basic swarms to upvote content you want to boost, but with LLM AI getting more sophisticated by the day, and more cost effective, there's going to AI driven bots actually writing plausible posts soon.

I think the crypto and scam space shows the leading edge, since scammers tolerance for lower quality means they can be early adopters.

But what do I know? I'm no expert. The Dead Internet Theory might stay be true, or we might have a few more years.

Also, good to get into the Fediverse. It may soon be the last refuge if humans.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You're more of an expert than I am! I don't get it... what do they think they're accomplishing by ridding themselves of human users?

[–] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think it's intentional on Xitter's part, necessarily. It's a bit of an arms race, and Xitter under new management had cut back on all sorts of staffing.

I also don't think many people stick on Xitter even notice. The algorithm seems to create a bunch of parallel silos, with outside intrusions provoking a swarm response almost.

In the case of Trudeau posts, most engagement seems to be from MAGAts and Qonvoyers, with probably some choice comments from "Joe McDonaldski" from the Canadian Oblast of Ontario or something.

From Xitter's perspective, a bunch of MAGAts and Qonvoyers reply, upvote, and engage with "Governor" Trudeau, viewing ads while a bunch of the flock pay for the Xitter check mark.

I think clearing the bots would be difficult, require continuing investment, and possibly reduce revenue in the short term.

I'm just on Xitter for legacy purposes, I rarely see anything meaningful. Granted the algorithm mostly has me figured out, and will show me stuff I already agree with, but just a bit further towards the edges of discourse. I'm under no illusion, I'm certain bad actors are influencing discourse all along the political spectrum.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

But speaking generally, what's the end goal with all these bots? The way some people speak, the net's almost all bots as is. I don't believe it, otherwise I wouldn't bother signing on anymore... but if that's in fact where we're headed, what do people think they're accomplishing in the long run by flooding the Internet with these things? Won't it be just them and their little bots in the end?