'Bot & Paid For'? Washington Owner Snyder Denies Use Of 'Fake News' Social Media

The denial is as strong as the timing is odd.

On Friday, news broke of alleged evidence of the NFL report on Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder's overseeing of a toxic work environment. Amid a denial from the league that the report was official came another incriminating angle, accusations that someone arranged for Twitter bots and Facebook advertising to support Snyder for good deeds done.

And now comes another denial.

“Dan Snyder unequivocally denies ever using bots or fake accounts to put out favorable news stories,” attorney Jordan Siev said in a statement issued to ProFootballTalk.com.

The fake accounts on Twitter, in many cases, appear to have been created at about the same time, and also spread remarkably similar messages of positivity about Snyder.

There has been speculation about what impact the use of "fake accounts'' on social media might have on Snyder's relationship with the NFL and with the WFT; to us, that seems difficult to predict given the unique nature of this situation. Would supporters of Snyder really not understand how obvious these efforts appear to be? Aren't the accusations that Snyder and his circle have manipulated the truth already enough to have killed such a transparently silly plan?

Snyder's lawyer is choosing a different angle, insisting that it is actually the anti-Snyder bots that are the problem.

“In fact,'' he said, "over the past year, thousands of bots have popped up in a coordinated campaign to spread misinformation about Dan and the Washington Football Team, all of which have been reported as such to various social media sites.”

In the end, the NFL will eventually have its report - no denials necessary - and the negativity will find its end because the toxicity will have done the same. For now, pro-Snyder bots and anti-Snyder bots are more embarrassing than anything else.