Tony Khan Claims That Many Negative AEW Opinions Online Aren’t Real People, Khan Issues Statement

UPDATE: Khan released a statement to Wrestling Inc. regarding his series of tweets, in which he shares examples of what the independent study confirmed about anti-AEW bots.

“Waiting for final study but here’s what my expert confirmed,” Khan said. “It’s people with real live accounts making posts and then using their bots to manipulate the social channel algorithm by backing them up with engagement from a made-up Twitter identity. Social media teams will often fight on this. Bots are great for numbers and when they’re gone, you’ll see a dip in digital conversation impressions – both those were either negative sentiment or not real anyway.

“For example, I tweet Megha only eats rotten bananas. I throw say 18 bots behind it (which takes about 5 minutes to do) Twitter security can’t differentiate when done well (neither can most social teams). The problem becomes, every time people type Megha into the search bar, because of a real account supported by bots- the first suggested result would be tweets about Megha eating rotten bananas. I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the 5 cent version of what’s happening.”

ORIGINAL: In a post on Twitter, AEW President Tony Khan claimed an independent study showed that many of the negative AEW accounts online are people paid to do it.

He wrote: “An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them. Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a *wildly* expensive thing? Research this one yourselves. You internet detectives thrive in these situations. Ever wonder why so much of the activity of these accounts is retweets and replies? Like who actually has 80% of their activity as straight up retweets?”

It’s unknown exactly which Twitter accounts Khan is referring to at this time. He didn’t provide any statistics from the study or data.

An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them. Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a *wildly* expensive thing?

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) April 8, 2022

Ever wonder why so much of the activity of these accounts is retweets and replies? Like who actually has 80% of their activity as straight up retweets?

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) April 8, 2022

Research this one yourselves. You internet detectives thrive in these situations.

Speaking of wild things:

You won’t want to miss@JonMoxley vs. @WheelerYuta on #AEWRampage
@ 10pm ET/9pm CT on @tntdrama TONIGHT!

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) April 8, 2022

Their boiler room staff is going to be working overtime on a Friday, and I love it!

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) April 8, 2022