Comment by Esophagus4

5 days ago

I am reading the comments under the AP article and wondering how many of them are just bots yelling at each other.

Dead internet theory is creeping up on me.

I don’t see any comments at all, at least on mobile. Is this a bot?

I was going to look at the comments out of curiosity, because I was surprised that there would be any comments at all on an AP article, for several reasons.

  • I think that might be a "you" thing, there certainly are comments. And here's a link to APNews' comment guideline page, showing they have comment sections on lots of places in their website

    https://apnews.com/community-guidelines

    Unsure why you jump to "is this a bot" conclusion, seems a little odd.

    • Unsure why you jump to "is this a bot" conclusion, seems a little odd.

      Seemed a little quick, but not odd. Most news comment sections are bots, I'd expext at least 10% of HN to be, etc.

      As the US midterms arrive, I'd expect news comments sections to be 99.99% bots.

  • Here are a few I see:

    Comment by burkej27. 41 MIN AGO No state run media!

    Comment by Robertl. 55 MIN AGO Is there anything that Trump does that is legal and won’t be overturned? What a waste of 4 years. They should be held responsible to the 1000 people damaged by his actions. If he can’t then his cabinet.

    Comment by Trumpisyourpresident. 1 HR AGO Just like NPR, it's the voice of liberal America, not America, so it should not be funded.

    Comment by KendallGrubb. 1 HR AGO We’re not in the 1950’s building Crystal am radios anymore. The cost of this service is unnecessary given today’s media options

    • The last one is so close to the point. Iran had Internet blackouts earlier this year, Russia has been experimenting with the same - options like shortwave are just as relevant as ever.

    • While radio listenership is in decline in the US it remains very popular in developing nations, even shortwave. That's really why it still exists.

    • News article comments are funny. I think some people are just angry about politics and feel the need to vent it all the time. I actually read the NYT comments occasionally, and it's the liberal version what you posted. Some people have the amazing ability to bend any topic into a long complaint about Trump. They're almost like that version of Claude that couldn't stop talking about the Golden Gate Bridge.