oh, but they did. Measurably. Comment sentiments shifted drammatically following the post knockout period, especially on topics where comments typically get flooded by what is commonly called a troll account. Take videos covering pro-choice content or other content critical of US right wing talking points, which draw such bots like flies to shit. Post knockout? Near nada on new videos. It went from a sizable chunk of comments (~13%<amount<27%), to a fraction of a single %. That's a non trivial shift. Still looking at data, but something certainly did happen, and I think the memes are likely grounded in truth.