The last Jedi ", according to a study

The "Last Jedi" was removed by the ultimate Sith Lord – Dark Putin.

The 2017 slice of the Star Wars franchise would have been widely criticized by online fans – but much of the criticism actually came from Russians trying to sow political discord, a new study revealed.

"A number of these users seem to be Russian trolls," said researcher Morten Bay.

Bay analyzed all the angry tweets sent to director Rian Johnson more than seven months after the release of the film.

The negative reaction was divided into three groups: those with a political agenda, trolls and real fans.

"Overall, 50.9% of the people who tweeted negatively were probably motivated by political reasons or were not even human," said Bay, a USC researcher and Ph.D. candidate.

Of the 206 negative tweets, 33 were sent by trolls and / or "sockpuppets" – a false identity used for deception – Bay's discovery. Among the trolls, 16 accounts appeared to be Russian.

One of the accounts suspected of belonging to a Russian troll would have tweeted Johnson 13 times in three weeks that he had "ruined Star Wars."

The evil anti-Jedi conspiracy seemed to have the same goal as in the 2016 US election: to further disseminate "a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society," writes Bay.

Bay was able to identify Russian robots using other documents describing the characteristics of Moscow's social media influence during the US presidential race and the Brexit campaign in the UK.

In his article, "Scam the Haters: The Last Jedi and the Strategic Politicization of Pop Culture Through Social Media Manipulation," Bay says the actual reaction to the film was actually much more positive.

"Attempts to politicize the discourse of pop culture on social media for strategic purposes are significant enough that users are aware of these measures, so that they can act accordingly," Bay warns.

The summary of the article was posted on ResearchGate on Monday. It has not been published yet.

Since its release last December, the "Last Jedi" has raised $ 1.3 billion in worldwide box office revenue, becoming the second most profitable film of the franchise.