True, this has been a problem for decades, but this new technology makes the work required to spread disinformation and steer online conversations much more accessible, with far greater reach and impact. It's no longer necessary to run human troll farms, when anyone can deploy thousands of bots cheaper and faster. We haven't even begun to address the original problem, and we've now made it much worse. It's bewildering that very few people are taking this seriously.

I'm not sure this works forever. A big chunk of the real humans will eventually figure out that the real human conversation is somewhere else. At that point, X loses much of its influence. Sure, you can - with great effort - shout louder than all the bots with opposing views. So what? Nobody real is listening.