What's up with these tweets that got hundreds of retweets and no likes whatsoever? #SundaySpam
cc: @ZellaQuixote
Answer: the tweets in question were amplified by a spam network consisting of (at least) 3586 accounts created between October 2013 and December 2022. The accounts have Turkish display names that rarely match their @-handles.
All of this network's recent tweets are retweets, and all of these retweets were tweeted via Twitter for Android. (Some accounts have older tweets sent with other apps; as we'll see, these accounts were likely hijacked and the old tweets are probably from the original owners.)
Who does this spam network retweet? As has been the case with a lot of spam networks over the last couple years, it mostly amplifies cryptocurrency/NFT accounts, although various other promotional accounts show up too, as well as @BBhuttoZardari, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan.
As mentioned earlier, the display names and @-handles of these accounts mostly don't match. This is because the display names have been changed, as revealed by Wayback Machine archives of their older tweets. A likely explanation: the accounts have been hijacked.
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