XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc

A MAGA bot network on X is divided over the Trump-Epstein backlash
Researchers have found hundreds of fake X accounts that support the
Trump administration.
By Kevin Collier
NBC News
July 20, 2025, 6:15 AM CDT

A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with
positive messages about people in the Trump administration, researchers
say.

But with the MAGA movement split over the administration's handling of
files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts'
messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue
and revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts.

The network, tracked for NBC News by both the social media analytics
company Alethea and researchers at Clemson University, consists of more
than 400 identified bot accounts, though the number could be far
larger, the researchers say. Its accounts offer consistent praise for
key Trump figures, particularly support for Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

As often is the case with bot accounts, those viewed by NBC News tended
to have only a few dozen followers, and their posts rarely get many
views. But a large audience does not appear to be the point. Their effectiveness, if they have any, is in the hope that they contribute to
a partisan echo chamber, and that en masse they can "massage
perceptions," said Darren Linvill, the director of Clemson University's
Media Forensics Hub, which studies online disinformation campaigns.

"They're not really there to get engagement. They're there to just be occasionally seen in those replies," Linvill told NBC News.

The researchers declined to share specifics on how they identified the accounts, but noted they shared a number of distinct trends. All were
created, seemingly in batches, around three specific days last year.
They frequently punctuate their posts with hashtags, often ones that
are irrelevant to the conversation. They post almost exclusively by
replying to other users, often to people who pay X for verification and
by repeating similarly worded sentiments over and over in short
succession. At times, they will respond to someone's post by repeating
it back to them verbatim.

It's unclear who is behind the network, or which of the multiple AI
chatbots that are widely accessible to the public was used to power it.

The bots have posted support for conservative figures since 2024,
including supporting Trump and other Republicans on the ballot in the
lead-up to the election, and then afterward posting that they were
excited for Trump to take office. Though they would occasionally mix
their messages -- some have professed affection for MSNBC host Rachel
Maddow, for instance -- their messaging was consistently in favor of
MAGA figures until the recent Epstein files controversy.

A core constituency of Trump supporters voted for him on the belief
that Trump, a former friend of Epstein's, would expose a list of
supposed rich and powerful clients and bring justice to Epstein's
victims.

It's only since earlier this month, when Attorney General Pam Bondi
announced she would not release additional Epstein files, that the
accounts' messaging has become so split, with some accounts telling
different users opposite opinions almost concurrently.

During the same minute last Saturday morning, for example, one account
in the network both cautioned a MAGA supporter from judging Bondi too
harshly and told another that Bondi or FBI Director Kash Patel and
Deputy Director Dan Bongino should resign over the scandal.

When Bondi first said she would not release additional files, another
declared that she "comes out clean as the DOJ confirms no Epstein
client list found, while reaffirming his death by suicide." Since then,
it has since told multiple people on X that they should engage in full
revolt against the Trump administration.

"Retweet if you believe that Trump & his cronies are lying to the
public and treating us like we're stupid. We won't be fooled by their
games," it posted Friday.

While it's unknown what the accounts' prompts are, they appear to be
trained on real MAGA social media accounts, whose messages tend to be
more unified, said C. Shawn Eib, Alethea's head of investigations.

"This split reaction mimics the organic reaction among supporters of
Trump's second administration," Eib told NBC News. "It's possible that
the behavior of these automated accounts is influenced by content
posted from prominent influencers, and this shift is reflective of the
general change in tenor among many of Trump's supporters."

Two tweets, a minute apart, by an alleged bot taking two sides on the
Epstein files:

Karie Wegley
@karie36622

Wow, this is getting juicy! Can't wait to see what comes out of this.
Stay tuned, folks, it's going to be a wild ride. #MAGABombshell
#EpsteinFiles #TrumpScandal

5:18 PM - Jul 15, 2025 - 75 views

Karie Wegley
@karie36622

The coffin of perversion has been nailed shut as the case of Jeffrey
Epstein is finally closed. Secrets may remain hidden, but no more
victims will suffer at his hands. #Justice #Closure

5:19 PM - Jul 15, 2025 - 28 views

For years, social media has been infested with inauthentic accounts
designed to sway popular opinion, whether they're marketing firms
pushing products or foreign governments and domestic groups pushing
political propaganda. But that has become turbocharged with the rapid proliferation of AI chatbots that can write and post convincing
messages without human intervention and exacerbated by social media
companies scaling back their moderation.

The White House declined to comment, and the Department of Health and
Human Services and X did not respond to requests for comment.

The researchers believe X is likely rife with inauthentic accounts,
though it's impossible to tell the scope. Last year, researchers found
a different network of AI-driven pro-Trump accounts on X. But there is
no way to grasp the scale of their presence on the network. X disbanded
much of its trust and safety team when billionaire Elon Musk bought the
site in 2022 and has since made it significantly harder for researchers
to access data.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/maga-ai-bot-network-divided-trump-epstein-backlash-rcna219167

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