NBA fans claim bots hijacked Twitter to condemn players' "political" boycott

In the wake of the recent shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, NBA players have taken a bold stance by opting to boycott Wednesday's playoffs games as a sign of protest. It started with the Milwaukee Bucks refusing to the take the field for the first-round playoff game against the Orlando Magic. Subsequently, the NBA, in consensus with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), announced that all three playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, and will be re-scheduled at a later date.

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The NBA boycott, however, does not stop there. Reports state that the remaining teams in Orlando held a meeting on Wednesday to decide the future of the ongoing season. The Athletic reports both LA Lakers (led by LeBron James) and LA Clippers have voted to boycott the playoffs. Meanwhile, most of the teams are in favour of continuing. 

While it remains unclear if and when the season will resume, the league's bold stance against the shooting in Wisconsin has been lauded by most fans and celebrities. Political leaders like Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and former US President Barack Obama offered their support to the NBA, WNBA, MLB and MLS for standing up against social injustice. 

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There is also another section of fans that has blasted the players for mixing sport with political affairs. And surprisingly, hundreds of tweets slamming the players' decision to boycott Wednesday's game read pretty much the same. Scratch that. They were identical. 

NBA boycott slammed: Bots or real people slamming players?

A video shared by and NBA fan, Mason Ginsberg, shows the numerous posts that convey the same message: "I'm done with NBA. It's turned into an extension of the far left. Won't watch. Don't care. Used to enjoy games. Enough is enough."

The general consensus among fans was it was the work of Twitter bots to spread unnecessary hate for the NBA boycott. 

Curious Twitter users, however, went a step ahead to determine the real truth why "I'm done with NBA" was the most popular phrase on social media.

So, according to a user named Ben Collins, it is less the work of bots and more a bunch of people - mostly hailing for Spain - using 'copypasta all over Twitter.' This means a host of users on Twitter are sharing the message on their feed for some unknown purpose. 

Twitter Communications themselves addressed the issue, where they noted many users are taking undue advantage of 'copypasta' and they will try to limit the visibility of such tweets.

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Also Read | LeBron James, Other NBA Players Firm With Call To Boycott Playoffs For Black Lives Matter

(Image Credits: Twitter, AP)