Washington owner Daniel Snyder denies using bots to promote positive stories

Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder is in hot water over allegations of sexual harassment reportedly committed by former club employees and may or may not be forced to sell the franchise as a result of an NFL investigation. 

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote, it appeared as if Internet "bots" had recently pushed online praise of Snyder, and that somebody seemingly purchased an advertisement on Facebook linking to a story that touches upon Snyder’s charitable works and good deeds. 

Snyder denied having any association with these occurrences in a statement shared by Florio on Monday. 

"Dan Snyder unequivocally denies ever using bots or fake accounts to put out favorable news stories," attorney Jordan Siev said. "In fact, 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." 

Anybody even mildly familiar with social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram has likely encountered bots or so-called "burner accounts" promoting products or links to third-party websites, but logic would suggest that any NFL owner would realize such small publicity wouldn't impact the league's final ruling following such serious accusations of misconduct. 

Snyder has made it clear he's not going down without a fight, though, and desperate times often call for desperate measures.