Reporters also scrutinized the first
100 followers of the “Vremya Pokazhet” Twitter account, which is
followed by approximately 9,600 users.
They found that more than half were
also likely to be bots: accounts which were registered less than a
month ago with few followers and messages only tweeted directly at
the show.
“Vremya Pokazhet” presenter Anatoly Kuzichev defended the show, telling Vedomosti that many of the show’s fans had made accounts specifically to contact the program. He said that the show categorically did not use tweets generated by bots on air.
A spokesperson for Channel One told
Vedomosti that the company would look into the situation, but
stressed that, “using bots is by no means company policy.”