A NewsGuard analysis found that in the five days since she posted the video, Loomer’s X account received 751,000 likes, comments, and reposts - compared to an average of 1.05 million likes, comments, and reposts during the previous three five-day periods. That represents a 28 percent drop in engagement.

It’s possible that the sudden drop reflected abandonment by a disgruntled base that Loomer has built over the years; as of June 23, she had 1.9 million followers on X. However, disaffected fans would not be expected to remain silent about her dramatic about-face and would therefore be expected to have more engagement with her account, not less. A more likely explanation for the rapid decline in engagement is that her previous engagement numbers were artificially pumped up by Russian bots, which could have been directed to abandon her after she turned against Russia.