Jonathan Pie explains it

[tw]

From the NY Times of 17 Nov 2016:

Automated Pro-Trump Bots Overwhelmed Pro-Clinton Messages, Researchers Say
An automated army of pro-Donald J. Trump chatbots overwhelmed similar programs supporting Hillary Clinton five to one in the days leading up to the presidential election, ...

Their purpose: to rant, confuse people on facts, or simply muddy discussions, said Philip N. Howard, a sociologist at the Oxford Internet Institute and one of the authors of the report. If you were looking for a real debate of the issues, you weren’t going to find it with a chatbot.

"They're yelling fools," Dr. Howard said. "And a lot of what they pass around is false news."

The role fake news played in the presidential election has become a sore point for the technology industry, particularly Google, Twitter and Facebook. ...

In some cases, the bots would post embarrassing photos, make references to the Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into Mrs. Clinton's private email server, or produce false statements, for instance, that Mrs. Clinton was about to go to jail or was already in jail. ...

The Oxford researchers had previously reported that political chatbots had played a role in shaping the political landscape that led to Britain's "Brexit" vote.

When your supporters are emotional, then fake news becomes fact. Same also 'proved' Saddam had WMDs. More examples of how Trump just kept throwing shit on the wall until something stuck. It works best on emotional adults - who still think like children. Who know what is 'true' without bothering to first learn underlying facts and 'reasons why'.

They also noted that bots tend to circulate negative news much more effectively than positive reports.

The emotional mostly focus on and are best manipulated by negative reports.