Definitely. This has actually happened to a viral story of mine before, and I get the impression that bots (or people with horrific English-language skills) “rewrite” them with computer-generated synonyms to try to make some money. Thing is, the synonyms are laughably unsuited to the context, so the plagiarized versions tank, but the bot (or poor English speaker) doesn’t know that.

I’m wondering if the “writer” in this situation is actually a bot himself. I’m also frankly suspicious of the user who praised this article. Perhaps part of a larger bot/plagiarism network?…