Bots fuel "viral" posts on social media, distorting public sentiment

• When advising executives and clients, communicators must be able to provide context on the actual sphere of influence these seemingly "viral" posts have.

Driving the news: Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has gained notoriety for his social media posts challenging the DEI policies of several big American brands — and companies like Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley-Davidson have buckled in response.

• Molson Coors, Lowe's and Ford have recently walked back their commitments to DEI too.

Yes, but: When you examine the engagement around these socially divisive posts, you'll find that much of the volume has been generated by social media bots, according to experts from public relations and marketing firm Jackson Spalding.

By the numbers: The policy reversals of Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley-Davidson saw 77% more media mentions and roughly 40% more social media interactions than Starbuck's initial anti-DEI campaigns, according to NewsWhip data shared with Axios.

• That's because bot activity is not driven by organic posts, but rather re-posts or likes, says Justin Williams, digital and analytics practice leader at Jackson Spalding.
• "If your first assumption is that tens of thousands of people know about this issue and have paid attention to it, then you would expect that when news comes out [about the policy change], it would actually cool things off — but the reverse occurred," he said.
• "There were fewer humans [who] were actually paying attention at that moment, but as soon as national media picked it up, it broadened the audience and diversified the number of people who were creating original content about it."

What they're saying: "Bots are used to manipulate public opinion by rigging the virality algorithm," says Guy Tytunovich, CEO of cybersecurity platform CHEQ.

• The bots are designed to trick the algorithm into "thinking" certain posts are reliable, relevant and interesting enough to show to more people, making them appear more organically viral, he says.
• Because of this, bots can cause major divisions and threaten democracy, adds Tytunovich.

State of play: Bot activity should be expected around any potentially polarizing issue, says Williams.

• "When bots are engaged, they're basically making a Super Bowl-like event out of things that are not," says Williams. "So it's important to understand that volume does not always equal depth."

Zoom in: The PR industry is partly to blame for the outsized value placed on social media volume, says Scott Sayres, head of reputation and issues management at Jackson Spalding.

• "In the early days of social media, the very first thing we looked at was 'how many mentions do you have' or 'what's your volume traffic?'" Sayres says. "Now we're having to break that cycle and re-educate everybody."
• Instead, understanding the social media chatter's sphere of influence — particularly how it might be reaching your targeted audiences or key stakeholder groups — should help inform the response.

Reality check: The rising popularity of and access to generative AI is likely to increase this bot activity.

• Meanwhile, tracking and understanding virality is becoming more difficult, as platforms withhold data to avoid scrutiny over how their algorithms work.

What to watch: Some companies could see this situation as an opportunity to backtrack on social commitments that leadership might view as risky.

• "While an activist had early success in causing major U.S. brands to walk away from their employees and DEI commitments, what we are now witnessing is more likely legal and executive teams using the air cover to end these programs before the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling begins a wave of litigation in the corporate setting," says Mike Clement, managing director and founder of Strait Insights.
• "Current leaders and boards are making the trade-off that litigation risk is more damaging than reputational risk and employee impact."

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