What's crazy is how complicit platforms themselves are in this behavior.
It's not just Russian political bots, but a good chunk of things you see on social platforms are driven entirely by offshore content farms - China, India, Philippines, etc. Not just the content - but the likes, shares, clicks, etc might all be generated in an attempt to "arbitrage" ad networks.
It's not just that platforms know about this, they are financially dependent on it - which makes it really easy for political agents to hide in the mess.
It's not just Russian political bots, but a good chunk of things you see on social platforms are driven entirely by offshore content farms - China, India, Philippines, etc. Not just the content - but the likes, shares, clicks, etc might all be generated in an attempt to "arbitrage" ad networks.
It's not just that platforms know about this, they are financially dependent on it - which makes it really easy for political agents to hide in the mess.