Who’s Got Laura Ingraham’s Back After Bullying Parkland Shooting Survivor? Russian Bots

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After going out of her way to bully 17-year-old Parkland survivor David Hogg for being rejected admission to four colleges, Fox News host Laura Ingraham might not have the support of a growing number of advertisers — at least 20 have cut ties with her show — or of most of America, but she does have the support of at least one group: Russian Bots.

Among the 1,500 “political propaganda bots” tracked by the website botcheck.me, the top two-word terms over Easter weekend were “David Hogg” and “Laura Ingraham”. Ingraham’s Twitter handle, @ingrahamangle, was also the fifth most mentioned username.

On the website Hamilton 68, which tracks bots and accounts the post and spread Russian propaganda, the rate at which the hashtag #IStandWithLaura was shared spiked by 2,800% over the course of the same 48 hours.

Ingraham is currently taking an “Easter break” as more and more of her show’s sponsors pull their support. She’s likely hoping her temporary absence will lead to the controversy quieting down and keep more advertisers from abandoning ship, but so far, it isn’t working.