Whenever something negative about Andrew Scheer is trending on Twitter—like #scheerweakness—Liberals are glad to tweet about it.

Yet, whenever a negative hashtag about Justin Trudeau starts spreading, the Liberals start whining and complaining about “bots.”

The latest example is an article posted on Medium that tried claiming a bunch of people were bots because they had tweeted and retweeted criticism of the PM:

“BOTS, AGAIN! ? In a boosted advertisement that has gotten him suspended from Twitter, a Liberal activist has again tried to spin anti-Trudeau campaigns as “bot driven.” His “watch-lists” include the NCC and election fellow @SpencerFernando”

BOTS, AGAIN! ? In a boosted advertisement that has gotten him suspended from Twitter, a Liberal activist has again tried to spin anti-Trudeau campaigns as "bot driven." His "watch-lists" include the NCC and election fellow @SpencerFernando. https://t.co/bdJoD9N3xw #TrudeauMustGo — National Citizens Coalition (@NatCitizens) September 8, 2019

It’s the same claim that was made by Liberal elites after #TrudeauMustGo and #TrudeauMustResign trended on Twitter.

Those complaints show a total misunderstanding of how Twitter works, and demonstrates a truly anti-democratic attitude.

First of all, if these hashtags were only driven by bots, why do so many real people Tweet them? Why do they originate – in the case of the #TrudeauMustGo hashtag—with real organizations and real people? Why do they just so happen to coincide with a moment when real people would be Tweeting about it—like #TrudeauMustGo trended after further revelations in the SNC-Lavalin PMO Scandal?

Nearly every hashtag on Twitter has some bot activity, but notice how the Liberals never talk about bots that help push their own anti-Scheer tweets? The reality is that the vast majority of both anti-Liberal and anti-Conservative tweets are real tweets by real people, and some bots just jump on that organic activity.

And when it comes to why anti-Trudeau hashtags trend so often, the answer of course is that these hashtags spread because Justin Trudeau is unpopular. Social media may not perfectly line up with what most Canadians think, but is anyone really surprised that Justin Trudeau gets so much criticism online? His popularity numbers are pretty terrible, with twice as many Canadians disapproving of him as approving of him, with a roughly 60%-30% disapprove vs approve total (10% usually say they’re undecided).

Notice how the Liberals never point out that Trudeau got a far less negative social media reception when he was first elected?

What a coincidence that Trudeau got less social media opposition when he was more popular, and gets more social media opposition now that he’s less popular.

Shocking…

The reality is that many millions of Canadians oppose Justin Trudeau, and you would expect that to result in people spreading hashtags that are critical of the politician they oppose. To blame that on bots is simply incorrect, and is anti-democratic, because it denies agency to real Canadians when we express our views.