“On Twitter, we’re more talking about resonance fraud. It’s not about embezzling advertising money, but influencing public opinion. The Twitter community in Germany is much smaller than the 12 million users officially mentioned. In fact, you’re mainly dealing with a few hundred thousand media professionals here, Twitter is primarily a medium for journalists. The problem is: The bots create a fake resonance, which then influences the official reporting. Journalists should not confuse the buzz in their social media echo chambers with reality – but that’s exactly what often happens.”
– Scharrer, J.: Living in the Matrix, in: Horizon (No. 47/2016, 24.11.2016), p. 19.