Peter Marks, former ABC Technician and current ABC Alumni Board member, warns social media users about the source of some comments.

During this election campaign, ABC Alumni have published videos for distribution on social media (see separate item in this newsletter). The videos are short, have vertical orientation and have “burned in” sub-titles.

The videos have done quite well, particularly on Facebook, getting a wide viewing audience both through “organic” sharing and some paid “boosting”. The videos have stimulated “engagement” with likes, or other reactions and often comments, some quite negative about the ABC. Some examples:

  • Pretty simple really.... shut it down! Australia doesn't need a media mouth piece for left wing ideology.
  • ABC needs to just go…
  • We need a referendum about giving ABC tax money ,, if asked ? There would be no abc
  • Defund the ABC.
  • The ABC is an absolute disgrace.
  • Defund the ABC now, what a waste of taxpayers money.
  • Lefty love in

We were a bit rocked to see these reactions but an examination of the accounts that made the comments reveals that almost all of them are “bots” or “sock puppet” accounts.

  • Milton S. - 100 friends. From Louisville, Kentucky. Only 2 posts, pictures of a dog.
  • Mike S. - 98 friends. No details. No posts.
  • Steve R. - 8 friends. No posts. Follows 3 including 9 News.
  • Robert M. - 171 friends. Townsville. No posts. Looks fake.
  • Lindsay B. - 79 Friends. Red Cliffs, Victoria. Pictured on a tractor. Likes prospecting. One post with dog.
  • Jim B. - Locked profile. 147 friends.

A quick internet search finds that there are numerous services on-line that offer to get you social media followers for a fee and we suspect that many of these accounts have used them.

AI has made it cheap to automate inauthentic activity by “bots” on social media. Poor grammar and typos in the comments might seem to indicate emotion in the commenter but this is often a deliberate tactic.

Attributes of an account that indicate it might be fake include: no profile picture (or an AI generated one), unusual usernames, empty or vague bio and personal information. Lots of comments but little interaction by others.

Bots, and the comments they create, do cost money and indicate that someone is funding a sophisticated campaign against a publicly funded ABC.

ABC Friends and ABC Alumni are doing their best to campaign for more support for the ABC. Look for them both on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and LinkedIn.

One practical thing you can do to support their efforts is to follow their social media accounts and like, share and comment on the posts you see. Don’t be alarmed by some of what you see under the posts – they may not even be by real people.