Made a reply to grey above that tackle on some points.
Why would they be automated to follow? Do others have to influence their choices, likes/dislikes, where self decisions are lost through following, copying or dictating.
Automated to follow upvotes because I don't have time to curate content and want the rewards for my staked Hive, this is for automated upvote trails. For automated downvote trails, there are curators I trust that use their stake to downvote posts that spam or plagiarize or do something stupid so my stake gets used in support of their call because I don't have the time to be present for all dramas.
Using ones right to downvote is one thing. Conducting malicious continuous group ring downvoting campaign groups to drain rewards off of others to influence the reward pool for personal gain is another.
Only know for sure when they actually reason for whatever cause they're trying to run you off for. Digital rep on the blockchain doesn't do much here. An account with 43 rep is less credible than an 65 rep account? Just saying some digits don't matter.