Bot Campaigns Turned Taylor Swift Into a Nazi and Cracker Barrel Into a Culture War

If you’ve ever looked at your timeline and thought “there’s no way this is real,” you’re probably right.  In this episode, Bridget and Mike speak to two data professionals about two recent reports from their companies that shed light on how bot networks attempt to hijack our online discourse: the Taylor Swift Nazi narrative after the release of Swift’s album Life of a Showgirl and the Cracker Barrel logo change backlash. Through the lens of these two seemingly unrelated campaigns, we unpack how bot-driven narratives spread, why it works, how online culture wars get engineered for clicks, chaos, and control, and what it means for the rest of us humans trying to engage in actual discourse online.    If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there to let us know what you think, or email us at [email protected]    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media!  ||  instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc ||  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.