"False flag" claims are prominently circling the news of suspicious packages delivered to the Obamas, Clintons, and other leading democrats today. False flag claims are an increasingly common tactic of conspiracy theorists and extremists, both domestically and internationally. 
A "false flag" attack is one where the perpetrators pretend to be their enemies, so they can falsely accuse them of the attack and/or create confusion and distrust. (Think pirate ships falsely flying the flag of the country whose ships they are attacking.)
Today's claims that the bomb scares were perpetrated by the democrats themselves are "false flag" claims. They are being amplified by automated accounts ("bots") and other kinds of fake accounts, as some researchers have already demonstrated.
However, the volume of content coming from these bots is relatively low (topping off at around 60 tweets for the most active accounts), and these false flag claims represent a small portion of those bots' daily output.
The real problem we're observing so far is not "bots", but real (if anonymous) people. Accounts with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, some of whom have even been retweeted by the president, claiming the bombs were sent by the democrats themselves.
We're also seeing foreign propaganda outlets like The Russophile pick up the "false flag" mantle in response to Alexander Soros's op-ed in the New York Times about the attack on his family. We expect to see more of this as the new work day begins in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Disinformation is more than a bot problem. Real people are working to deceive, and many unwitting participants are tricked into propagating those false narratives.
With the midterms 13 days away, it's easy for the news to make our heads spin, and our fingers tap "retweet" or "share" almost unconsciously. The best way to stop disinfo in its tracks is to exercise healthy skepticism, and be slow to share "news" from unfamiliar sources.
As always, we're tracking these stories and working to bring nuanced insight to this problem. Stay vigilant, everyone.
