I know, just because people are using bots to spread a message doesn't mean the message is wrong. I read the original article from Carnegie Mellon's website:
Nearly Half Of The Twitter Accounts Discussing ‘Reopening America’ May Be Bots
The data part was fine, but when they started explaining why the situation was problematic, they started making stuff up with no references to back up what they were saying.
"Carley said that spreading conspiracy theories leads to more extreme opinions, which can in turn lead to more extreme behavior and less rational thinking."
Evidence for this claim? Or is that speculative opinion. The problem with targeting and shutting down "conspiracy theories" is that who determines what piece of information constitutes a "conspiracy theory"? And a conspiracy theory isn't necessarily wrong just because it is a theory. If there is a lie being spread around, combat it with contrary evidence. If you can't do that, how do you know that you are right?
"Even if someone appears to be from your community, if you don't know them personally, take a closer look, and always go to authoritative or trusted sources for information," Carley said. "Just be very vigilant."
And which are the "authoritative and trusted" sources? The sources
i trust, or the sources Carley thinks we should trust?