The supposed fan backlash that chased Kelly Marie Tran from social media may have been the work of Russian trolls and non-human bots in support of right wing and racist agendas, concluded a study from the University of Southern California.

Salon reports the study by researcher Morten Bay analyzed tweets aimed at ridiculing Kelly Marie Tran, the first women of color to be cast in a lead role in the Star Wars franchise.

“The study finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments,” Bay writes. “ The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society.”

According to the South China Morning Post more than half of the tweets analyzed came from non-human bots with a number being Russian trolls. Some 960 twitter accounts were analyzed by Bay.

Bay concluded only about 10 percent of the tweets he analyzed came from legitimate Twitter accounts.

In December 2017, AsAmNews reported a fan page was taken over by racists who posted bigoted messages about Tran.

(Editor’s Note: An incorrect photo originally used for this article was taken from Wikimedia Creative Commons. We apologize for the error and have replaced the photo)

AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff or submitting a story.