Russian bots are back: #WalkAway attack on Democrats is a likely Kremlin operation

The Huffington Post reported over the weekend that this troll attack is a counter-measure against the potential "blue wave" coming this fall, with the WalkAway hashtag intended to simulate real-world Democrats who have apparently chosen to leave the party due to its (try not to laugh) alleged intolerance and lack of civility. It's a ludicrous concept, given the galactically more egregious incivility of Trump and his Red Hats, extending back at least three years and including a deadly terrorist attack in Charlottesville, among myriad other examples.

In any case, this "hashtag has been connected to Russian bots," according to the HuffPost report:

It has ranked as the third or fourth most popular Kremlin-linked hashtag for days, according to bot tracking by the Hamilton 68 site run by the bipartisan Alliance for Securing Democracy, which keeps tabs on Russian activity on the American internet.

Arc Digital has made the same connection in the "strikingly similar" tweets pushing a "familiar narrative" of Democratic "bullying." Arc traced the campaign from a Facebook group in May and subsequent tweets whose traffic suddenly began to explode late last month.

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The #WalkAway attack appears to be targeting disaffected registered Democrats who might be inclined to fall in line with an exodus from the party, a few months before a hugely important election. Sure, that's a highly specific and pretty small demographic. But, as we've seen, modern elections tend to feature too-close-for-comfort margins, swung by relatively small groups of voters. The good news, of course, is the prominence of the hashtag doesn't necessarily mean that real-life Democrats are suddenly exiting the party.

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