Particularly on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram, bots, or fake accounts, create posts and disperse comments meant to build a narrative about how people feel. For example, thousands of fake Twitter accounts could post personal (anecdotal) stories about how one group of people (usually political affiliate, ethic group, etc.) responded to the coronavirus lockdown. The purpose of these bots is to demonize these people and to sow discord with others. The effect of these bots includes incrementally changing people’s views on issues and thus influencing voters. 

With the rise of social media in the United States, foreign and domestic entities have utilized bots to influence the course of discussion and/or the opinions of its readers. Bots were used by the Russian government in 2016 to do just that.