One of the main holdups for Elon Musk after his initial $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was the percentage of users who are bots. The billionaire claims the company grossly misled about the severity of the problem, while Twitter argued he was using the issue as a pretext to get out of the deal. Of course, both could be true, but to avoid a lengthy court battle, here we are now with Musk in full control of Twitter and the fake account issue still there.
Take, for example, what happened this weekend, when Chinese bot accounts flooded the site to bury news about the massive anti-lockdown protests taking place. But that’s not the only spamming campaign that caught attention.
Remember retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman? He made a name for himself as a witness in the first impeachment against former President Trump. He was one of the White House staffers who listened in on Trump’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart and issued a report about it, which set in motion the impeachment inquiry.
But now, he, like most liberals, seems infuriated that Musk is at Twitter’s helm.
“Kinda weird that @elonmusk gets to decide how like a half-billion people communicate. Way too much power for one erratic individual to wield, don’t you think?” he wrote.
That message was then repeated over and over again by spam accounts, which Musk and others noticed.
Interesting to see Vindman is part of this robotic operation https://t.co/QnsOkfATfc
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 27, 2022
Now we know @AVindman’s followers are bots https://t.co/6FIcuiyFQi
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 27, 2022
They’re bots in human form
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
Vindman is both puppet & puppeteer. Question is who pulls his strings … ?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
Like digital ventriloquist dolls 🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
Or maybe just … bots 🤷♂️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
Needless to say, Vindman didn't take too kindly to those comments.
Tesla stock is plummeting, Twitter is on the verge of insolvency, SpaceX succeeded in spite of you. You have a chance to salvage your legacy. Try this as your touchstone. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. LeaDeRSHIP. #Armyvalues
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) November 27, 2022
The typical leftist outrage ensued.
Musk was pointing out that Vindman's tweet was either originated by or part of an automated bot campaign which has been proven through several screenshots. Happy to continue to help you understand these things. https://t.co/n45HFJCp8z
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 28, 2022
To be clear here, in calling this a "smear," is it your contention that Musk was wrong about this tweet being verbatim identical to a whole bunch of other tweets, as @neontaster has documented? If so, show your work. https://t.co/co7xSLqZwv
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 28, 2022
