BBC Disinformation Correspondent Forced to Admit “Reform Bots” Are Real People
The crusade launched by BBC’s “Disinformation Correspondent” Marianna Spring to accuse Reform supporters on social media of being bots has ended up in farce. Spring got a two-minute segment on BBC News at Ten last night to talk about her week-long research project, which appears to be based on her observation that more people post messages in favour of Reform than other parties on social media. The party has just polled above the Tories…
Spring listed numerous accounts “with no profile image and numerical usernames – common hallmarks of fake accounts“. Guido had a look at the chief culprit of Spring’s incisive report – a Twitter account called “GenZbloomer”. Apart from suggesting that the account was a foreign agent, Spring failed to mention in her article that it had only 164 followers. Whether or not it is a real person, their tweets will be seen by about 14 people…
So tawdry is Spring’s evidence of a mass bot campaign in favour of Reform that she spends most of the second half of the article going through all the accounts that turned out to be real people, including those who graciously agreed to speak to her on the phone to prove their authenticity. Reform says it’s “delighted at the organic growth of online support“. Is this the best the BBC has got?
