Nobody was arguing in the comments. Political outrage was running late. For several hours, people had to form their own opinions.
That same day, in a nest above an Australian fish and chips shop, opposite a building that was forever holding press conferences, two eggs hatched.
One was an emu. The other was a pigeon.
The paperwork said twins.
Nobody questioned it until Pigeon learned to read.
Emu looked out at the world and assumed the silence was personal. Pigeon looked out and wanted to know who had switched off the noise. Their personalities have not changed much since.
When the bots returned, Pigeon noticed something Emu did not: accounts that had never agreed on anything were suddenly saying the same thing, in exactly the same words. Pigeon began keeping notes. Emu began checking whether anyone had liked the first photograph.
Pigeon has spent a lifetime investigating what happened during those missing hours. Emu maintains that the only important thing that happened that day was their birthday.
