Twitter bots hoodwinked Prez, celebs

PUTIN ‘CHEF’ IMPLICATED

PROSECUTORS SAY Twitter accounts belonging to Russian bots used trickle-down trolling to spread pro-Trump propaganda and misinformation in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The “troll farm” funded by the Russian government pushed propaganda on hundreds of thousands of Americans through Twitter accounts like @TEN—GOP and @America1st — but not without some help.

Celebrities, politicians as well as media and news organizations were among the hundreds of thousands of American social media users duped into engaging with the phony accounts, often times thrusting the Russian-state sponsored Tweets into viral territory.

President Trump retweeted one of the accounts @10—GOP in September after it offered some friendly words of support in a tweet saying, “We love you Mr. President!”

Trump shared the Tweet with his millions of followers and responded with “So nice, thank you!” It was retweeted nearly 9,000 times and liked another 50,000.

His son, Donald Trump Jr. (above), also made a frequent habit of retweeting the troll accounts on matters ranging from voter fraud to a Swedish immigrant riot hoax.

“BREAKING: Thousands of names changed on voter roles in Indiana,” one of them read. “Police investigation #VoterFraud #DraintheSwamp.”

Conservative Ann Coulter also fell victim to Kremlinlinked accounts on several occasions. In October 2016 she shared a tweet that claimed former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would’ve granted “amnesty to 30+ million illegal aliens” had she won her bid for office.

It isn’t just Republicans who pushed such phony accounts further into the spotlight.

Rapper Nicki Minaj, comedienne Sarah Silverman and “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah were reportedly among the celebrities who engaged with Russia-sponsored tweets.