Here's a look at a smallish astroturf network targeting @SafeguardDefend (a non-profit group that has released multiple reports on human rights abuses in China) with spammy duplicate tweets. #SaturdaySpam
cc: @ZellaQuixote
This network consists of 25 Twitter accounts created in multiple batches in September and October 2022. Thus far, all their tweets were tweeted via the Twitter Web App, and they generally go silent for two days a week (Friday and Saturday in US Pacific Time).
The content tweeted by this network is repetitive, with many tweets duplicated verbatim numerous times across multiple accounts. The most frequently repeated tweets all begin with the hashtag #SafeguardDefenders, and are all attacks on the Safeguard Defenders group.
The accounts in this network use a variety of profile images: real people, abstract backgrounds, cats, horses, and an anime face. Unsurprisingly, the photographs of real people (used by @AdelaideEisenh7, @JaneDav41198277, and @JoyceJe00102569) all appear to be plagiarized.
The cat and horse profile pics show signs of being artificially generated. Note the anomalies in the ears of several of the cat images, the sea of fur surrounding the head in @KristyC92103660's image, and the multiple heads on @BrittneyMangum2's horse (among other things).
Pastebin of the IDs of the 25 accounts in the network:
pastebin.com/3vaQVwgc
Possible sources of the cat and horse profile images used by the network:
thiscatdoesnotexist.com
thishorsedoesnotexist.com
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