Denier-bots live! Why are online comments’ sections over-run by the anti-science, pro-pollution crowd? « Climate Progress

Many readers have joked that some of the comments at ClimateProgress seem to come from pre-programmed ‘denier-bots’. Others have noted how the same arguments and phrasings keep cropping up in the comments’ section of the many unmoderated news sites on the web.

The extreme anti-government, pro-pollution crowd has a highly targeted effort to control the debate, even online (see “Digg this: Conservative efforts to manipulate the public discussion extend to social media“). It is, of course, possible all those comments are from separate individuals, none of whom are paid by corporate polluters or conservative billionaires. It is also possible we never landed on the moon….