Thread by @benimmo

Thread: targeted trolling is a thing. Sometimes, you can watch it in action.

medium.com/dfrlab/trolltr…

Here's a scan of mentions of @GuardianHeather, after she wrote a piece on Russian trolls, bots and propaganda around the Skripal case. Note the surge, which came after she tweeted her piece out.

A lot of the traffic was organic, but some of it was driven by this: retweets of her post, tagging almost 50 other accounts.

Given the tone, the tagging wasn't exactly intended to attract praise.

The tagged accounts replied with insults direct to Stewart's post. They also retweeted each other.

Between them, they generated over 350 posts in a couple of hours.

None of the comments was beyond the pale individually, but the aggregate effect was a mobbing.

This is a classic troll working method: tag a load of accounts, and get them to pile in.

Judging by this conversation, that was the intention.

This group has been doing the same thing for a long time. If you criticise the Russian or Syrian governments, you've probably met them yourself.

Here's a similar ploy, back in 2016.

Here's one targeting @KenRoth, after he posted about Putin.

Note how fast the reaction was. One minute.

Hair trigger.

Here's how the initial troll-whistle post was retweeted, per @sysomos scan. Note the tagged accounts getting involved.

And here's what happened next: replies directly to Roth from accounts which didn't follow him, but did follow the retweeters.

There was a particularly long-running campaign against @oliviasolon.

Note the explicit tip-off in this post, and the addition of three more of the group.

That was December 2017. The attacks were still coming in February 2018.

Note, too, the shout-out to Russian government voices here, including the embassy, and RT and Sputnik presenters.

Again, the tagging is what leads to comments incorporating the victim's handle.

Interesting to see the reference to @jk_rowling, too. She's been in this group's sights since she made friends with Bana Alabed in 2016.

The message is really clear here. "Deserves a tsunami of responses," and tag the group members.

Looks awfully like incitement to harass @mtpennycook...

For safety's sake, we gave the accounts involved in this the right to reply.

There could be an innocent explanation, after all.

The responses were amazing.

But didn't exactly explain.

"Report for targeted harassment."

How ironic.

What we didn't get was a reasonable alternative explanation for posts like this.

Conclusion: these are attempts at troll-whistling, calling a group of attackers onto a target.

They weren't always very effective, but that's how mob harassment works. /

Thread ends.