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 .
I’d like to say something before these statements get blown out of proportion. We frequently delete threads/posts and ban accounts from spammers and bots who have IPs traced all over the world—not just Russia—and try to promote all kinds of random sites and products. There’s no evidence to suggest that any of it is politically motivated or geared towards a specific agenda besides driving traffic to questionable web sites where they can steal your personal info. The presence of Russian spam is no more ominous than spam in any other language.
I’d also like to add that while the purpose of this thread as intended by the OP is to promote the positive aspects of standing up against hate in the community while avoiding the political discussions that tangentially arise from that topic, once you start posting articles that are clearly biased in one direction and cite studies that appear less than neutral, you invite the counterpoint and it becomes unreasonable to insist the topic’s scope remain narrow. Discussing the validity of the study and the points it raises is fair game.