# Wired: Pro-Gu Russian Bots Flood Twitter After Parkland Shooting **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963 "2018-02-16T22:25:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/1 "2018-02-16T22:25:16Z")
> **[Pro-Gun Russian Bots Flood Twitter After Parkland Shooting](https://www.wired.com/story/pro-gun-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/)** > > In the wake of Wednesday's Parkland, Florida, school shooting Russian bots have taken to Twitter to stoke the gun control debate. > [@](#): > > In the wake of Wednesday’s Parkland, Florida school shooting, which resulted in 17 deaths, troll and bot-tracking sites reported an immediate uptick in related tweets from political propaganda bots and Russia-linked Twitter accounts. Hamilton 68, a website created by Alliance for Securing Democracy, tracks Twitter activity from accounts it has identified as linked to Russian influence campaigns. As of morning, shooting-related terms dominated the site’s trending hashtags and topics, including Parkland, guncontrolnow, Florida, guncontrol, and Nikolas Cruz, the name of the alleged shooter. Popular trending topics among the bot network include shooter, NRA, shooting, Nikolas, Florida, and teacher. I’m starting to wonder just how long this kind of thing has been going on and how much of our political discord and disfunction was orchestrated from outside. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/2 "2018-02-16T22:42:32Z")
When your enemy is making a mistake, never interrupt him. – Napoleon (paraphrased) When your enemy is making a mistake, do all that you can to ensure he keeps making it. – Putin (as imagined by me) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/3 "2018-02-17T01:14:01Z")
Alliance for Securing Democracy doesn’t seem very interested in defending anyone’s right to post on Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/4 "2018-02-17T02:34:18Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Alliance for Securing Democracy doesn’t seem very interested in defending anyone’s right to post on Twitter. There’s nothing to defend, as no such right exists. Twitter is a specific, privately owned service; nobody has a “right” to post on it any more than they have a right to, for example, post here on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/5 "2018-02-17T07:46:35Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > There’s nothing to defend, as no such right exists. Twitter is a specific, privately owned service; nobody has a “right” to post on it any more than they have a right to, for example, post here on the SDMB. Because somebody is Securing Democracy, you have a right to post on whatever site gives you private internal permission to post. The Constitution is not about rights in the private marketplace. It is about the government surrendering the power to infringe on those rights. Alliance for Securing Democracy sounds like it is interested only in securing your right to say what they approve of. Otherwise, what concern is it of theirs who tweets, and why are they monitoring?? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/6 "2018-02-17T15:13:16Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I’m starting to wonder just how long this kind of thing has been going on and how much of our political discord and disfunction was orchestrated from outside. Yeah, I started a similar thread not too long ago. I can’t believe the Russians (and everyone else) just started doing this recently. Hell, we’ve been doing it for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wired-pro-gu-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/808963/7 "2018-02-17T17:46:05Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Because somebody is Securing Democracy, you have a right to post on whatever site gives you private internal permission to post. The Constitution is not about rights in the private marketplace. It is about the government surrendering the power to infringe on those rights. Alliance for Securing Democracy sounds like it is interested only in securing your right to say what they approve of. Otherwise, what concern is it of theirs who tweets, and why are they monitoring?? Seems like a comparison between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the KKK is apt here. SLPC isn’t anti-American or anti-democracy just because it seeks to expose racists to the light of day. Similarly, exposing actual anti-Americans to the light of day can hardly be considered unfair or bad.