The WSJ a few days ago had a story about the stupid Cracker Barrel logo controversy.
It says this:
Three days after the backlash erupted, Cracker Barrel hired a Washington, D.C.-based company to better understand the online conversation. The consultants found that 32% to 37% of the online activity criticizing Cracker Barrel in the days after its logo announcement was fueled by fake accounts, with at least two groups of bots driving much of the outrage.
The report also cites Dan Brahm of Cyabra, which is a firm that analyzes accounts.
“The bots create a viral narrative that shapes the opinions of other people out there,” Brahmy said. Fake accounts attempting to manipulate the market are on the rise, particularly on topics that draw interest from ideological, activist or state-backed actors.
To me, this is so obviously happening in so many ways. Everything on the internet is increasingly fake. This started with Cambridge Analytica and AI has supercharged it.
I'm certain that it was relentlessly used (by both sides) in the latest US election as well as many elections around the world. Moreover, I'm almost certain it's being used in stock market pump-and-dumps.
With something like this stupid logo controversy, I think that's just an indication of a sandbox effect as firms and state actors sharpen their manipulation skills but it certainly could have been stock market shorts.
