Tony Khan - Bot Attack

[polarbearpete]

Thought it might be worthy of its own thread:

[06vwgti]

It was its own thread earlier actually

[petef3]

Apr 8, 2022 13:40:21 GMT -5 06vwgti said:

It was its own thread earlier actually

Link?

[06vwgti]

Apr 8, 2022 14:14:02 GMT -5 petef3 said:

Apr 8, 2022 13:40:21 GMT -5 06vwgti said:

It was its own thread earlier actually

Link?

Guess it was deleted or merged.

[The Ichi]

I'm sure he's joking, but even still...just let it *go*, Tony.

[polarbearpete]

Apr 8, 2022 14:34:27 GMT -5 The Ichi said:

I'm sure he's joking, but even still...just let it *go*, Tony.

Apparently, Alvarez on WOL said that he did indeed commission a study.

[Deleted]

An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-Doo Doo Piss Butter Ezekiel online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them. Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a *wildly* expensive thing?

[Deleted]

I was never sure if the Twitter and Facebook comment section were robots, or people who just learned the English language from WWE commentary, which arguably sounds less human. I appreciate TK for clearing the matter up.

[markymark]

Earlier today, AEW owner and CEO Tony Khan caused a stir on social media when he released a series of tweets suggesting that an independent study had shown that most of the staunch anti-AEW community online was not real.

Instead, he asserted that it was a small staff running thousands of accounts, with the help of several bot accounts.

“An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them,” Khan tweeted. “Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a wildly expensive thing?”

Shortly after running a story on his tweets, Wrestling Inc. reached out to Tony Khan for clarification on his tweet. Khan responded by giving examples to illustrate what he says his expert confirmed during their investigation.

“Waiting for final study but here’s what my expert confirmed,” Khan responded. “It’s people with real live accounts making posts and then using their bots to manipulate the social channel algorithm by backing them up with engagement from a made-up Twitter identity. Social media teams will often fight on this. Bots are great for numbers and when they’re gone, you’ll see a dip in digital conversation impressions – both those were either negative sentiment or not real anyway.

“For example, I tweet Megha only eats rotten bananas. I throw say 18 bots behind it (which takes about 5 minutes to do) Twitter security can’t differentiate when done well (neither can most social teams). The problem becomes, every time people type Megha into the search bar, because of a real account supported by bots- the first suggested result would be tweets about Megha eating rotten bananas. I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the 5 cent version of what’s happening.”

www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2022/04/exclusive-clarification-on-tony-khans-army-of-bots-tweet/

[Mid-Carder]

Apr 8, 2022 15:00:33 GMT -5 markymark said:

Earlier today, AEW owner and CEO Tony Khan caused a stir on social media when he released a series of tweets suggesting that an independent study had shown that most of the staunch anti-AEW community online was not real.

Instead, he asserted that it was a small staff running thousands of accounts, with the help of several bot accounts.

“An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them,” Khan tweeted. “Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a wildly expensive thing?”

Shortly after running a story on his tweets, Wrestling Inc. reached out to Tony Khan for clarification on his tweet. Khan responded by giving examples to illustrate what he says his expert confirmed during their investigation.

“Waiting for final study but here’s what my expert confirmed,” Khan responded. “It’s people with real live accounts making posts and then using their bots to manipulate the social channel algorithm by backing them up with engagement from a made-up Twitter identity. Social media teams will often fight on this. Bots are great for numbers and when they’re gone, you’ll see a dip in digital conversation impressions – both those were either negative sentiment or not real anyway.

“For example, I tweet Megha only eats rotten bananas. I throw say 18 bots behind it (which takes about 5 minutes to do) Twitter security can’t differentiate when done well (neither can most social teams). The problem becomes, every time people type Megha into the search bar, because of a real account supported by bots- the first suggested result would be tweets about Megha eating rotten bananas. I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the 5 cent version of what’s happening.”

www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2022/04/exclusive-clarification-on-tony-khans-army-of-bots-tweet/

Tony if you're bored, I have some laundry you could do for me. Or there's Netflix. 

[Jaws the Shark]

Frankly I would be more surprised to find that WWE wasn't astroturfing social media.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Apr 8, 2022 15:00:33 GMT -5 markymark said:

Earlier today, AEW owner and CEO Tony Khan caused a stir on social media when he released a series of tweets suggesting that an independent study had shown that most of the staunch anti-AEW community online was not real.

Instead, he asserted that it was a small staff running thousands of accounts, with the help of several bot accounts.

“An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them,” Khan tweeted. “Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a wildly expensive thing?”

Shortly after running a story on his tweets, Wrestling Inc. reached out to Tony Khan for clarification on his tweet. Khan responded by giving examples to illustrate what he says his expert confirmed during their investigation.

“Waiting for final study but here’s what my expert confirmed,” Khan responded. “It’s people with real live accounts making posts and then using their bots to manipulate the social channel algorithm by backing them up with engagement from a made-up Twitter identity. Social media teams will often fight on this. Bots are great for numbers and when they’re gone, you’ll see a dip in digital conversation impressions – both those were either negative sentiment or not real anyway.

“For example, I tweet Megha only eats rotten bananas. I throw say 18 bots behind it (which takes about 5 minutes to do) Twitter security can’t differentiate when done well (neither can most social teams). The problem becomes, every time people type Megha into the search bar, because of a real account supported by bots- the first suggested result would be tweets about Megha eating rotten bananas. I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the 5 cent version of what’s happening.”

www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2022/04/exclusive-clarification-on-tony-khans-army-of-bots-tweet/

And again, this has a whole lot of merit to it

Anyone ever notice that the most negative comments about AEW are always right at the top of posts about AEW? It's not the positive comments with like a thousand likes, it's the same AEW Troll accounts always at the top of the feed always shitting on the product with a surprisingly high like volume, and that's seen not just on AEW feeds, but posts about AEW that are either positive or in Alvarez's ratings case, pretty neutral.

This isn't just with AEW though, there are a ton of fandoms like this, a ton of ways to manipulate the system like this and it's really no grand secret I don't think.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Apr 8, 2022 15:04:06 GMT -5 Mid-Carder said:

Apr 8, 2022 15:00:33 GMT -5 markymark said:

www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2022/04/exclusive-clarification-on-tony-khans-army-of-bots-tweet/

Tony if you're bored, I have some laundry you could do for me. Or there's Netflix. 

I get the notion that Khan saying it makes it seem more "cringe" or a "waste of time", but what he's saying here is actually pretty intriguing and has merit behind it imo, and it was good clarification from his initial tweets. It really isn't a waste of time imo, what he's saying is something that can actually be seen on Twitter especially in real time.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I'm looking forward to AEW Battle of the Bots.

[Cyno]

Do we really need two threads about this?

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Apr 8, 2022 15:11:23 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Do we really need two threads about this?

No, we don't imo, but I'm sure mods will take care of it and merge them

[Celexa Bliss 54]

OK, but like... DOES Megha eat rotten bananas? Don't bury the lead, Tony!

[The Dark Order Inferno]

This isn't some act of vanity on his part, at a time TV networks and streaming services are beginning to use social media engagement to judge the true reach and reception of a show rather than traditional ratings alone, Khan would be nuts not to hire someone to run analysis on AEW's engagement to see what they can learn from it to improve the shows.

I doubt there's some conspiracy, just people with weird axes to grind, business as usual for online fandoms.

[lucas_lee]

Apr 8, 2022 14:51:25 GMT -5 polarbearpete said:

Apr 8, 2022 14:34:27 GMT -5 The Ichi said:

I'm sure he's joking, but even still...just let it *go*, Tony.

Apparently, Alvarez on WOL said that he did indeed commission a study.

That reaks of being thin skinned and really is showing billionaire privilege IMO

[Mozenrath]

Honestly, I spend way too much time on trans twitter to think that the "bots aren't a real thing" dismissals carries any weight. It's unfortunately trivially simple to do, and something transphobes regularly get caught doing to push trending topics and to dogpile.

Obviously, far from universally, and it's not a problem unique to AEW and TK, to say the least. Still, when you see a bunch of people regurgitate the same statements word for word, or you see accounts with hundreds or thousands of followers but with like 3 likes on their tweets, it's easy to smell a rat.