I wonder if some were in this very thread that seemed to come out of the woodwork , think I may have come across a few on Facebook as well …https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-last-jedi-was-targeted-by-russian-trolls-study-says-1148475
Unfortunately mate, even with a headline of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi Negative Buzz Amplified by Russian Trolls, Study Finds’ for the article with the link to the study paper in, some will ignore that (and this below)…
“Among the 967 tweets analyzed, 206 expressed a negative sentiment towards the film and its director, which is 21.9% or a little more than one in five fans. This number includes all negative tweets analyzed, i.e. also those who came from the 44 accounts identified as bots, sock puppet accounts and trolls."
… and instead focus on the political aspects of the study - or have a pop at Rian Johnson at even mentioning it (who has stated he doesn’t have a problem with those not liking the film; he does have a problem with the more toxic elements of ‘criticism’ - by that I think he means the racists, sexists, bots and trolls - and likely those who post death threats and announce his death too?).
Johnson himself alluded to Russian bots being behind a campaign to ‘save’ a character in TLJ too in one of the bonus material feature on TLJ blu ray - seems he may have more of an idea what is going than some.
I’ve seen a few people cast doubt as to Russian bots targeting a film - well, it evidently does happen. It’s not an excuse - just a fact, though some people seemingly have difficulty accepting the truth of such a thing. Russian bots and trolls target this very site - frequently - along many more other popular sites.
At least there is the ‘Culture, politics, and diversity in Star Wars’ thread on here to talk about the political aspects of criticisms towards the series (or parts of it).
" Russian bots and trolls target this very site -frequently-along many other popular sites " - I had a strong suspicion this might be the case , especially when I see threads with titles in Russian language that mysteriously pop up in the wee hours between 2 and 4 in the morning and then disappear . As a former mod , I would think you would have first hand knowledge .