Thread by @conspirator0

Today we'll take a look at accounts that are by and large automated, but likely have a more hands-on human operator than a pure "bot". We have two examples; one on the right, one on the left. Coin flip says look at the right-wing one first.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

First up: @gerfingerpoken. This account is presently tweeting round-the-clock using "SweeterTweet", an automation service that will allow one to "schedule a massive 500 repeating tweets for any day or time" and features a cartoon strawberry (with chocolate) on their website.

Use of SweeterTweet is only the latest incarnation of @gerfingerpoken's automation. Back in 2017, they used a combination of #PJNET and something called smqueue. Despite @gerfingerpoken's protestations, Twitter was correct to flag the account as automated.

What do @gerfingerpoken's tweets actually contain? Topics include Trump, Clinton, the "deep state", and the Mueller probe among others. External links are mostly limited to two far-right sites, and the most frequently used hashtag is #PJNET.

Despite a whopping 1.21M tweets, @gerfingerpoken doesn't actually have anywhere near that much content because the tweets are repeated, frequently hundreds or thousands of times. We'll return to this theme after looking at the second example. . .

Meet @HubertTemba (and @HubertTemba1, @HubertTemba3, @HubertTemba4, @HubertTemba5, @HubertTemba6, @HubertTemba7, and @HubertTembaMSc). Unlike @gerfingerpoken, these accounts have a decidedly left-wing bent.

Here are the schedules for the 8 HubertTemba<X> accounts. All but @HubertTemba and @HubertTemba5 are more or less identical; the tweets posted with "Linky for iOS" appear to be shared across all accounts.

What do the HubertTemba<X> accounts tweet about? Trump is the main topic, followed by Russia/Putin; all the mentioned parties are portrayed negatively. Tweets contain a mix of common liberal and anti-Trump hashtags. Sadly, the most common media source is clickbait site TopBuzz.

Like @gerfingerpoken, the HubertTemba<X> accounts are repetitive. The implementation differs: the right-wing @gerfingerpoken uses a single high-volume account, while the left-wing HubertTemba<X> group spreads the traffic across eight quieter accounts.

The effect of both operations is similar, however. In each case, the accounts are managing to post tweet volume far greater than the actual amount of content they have to share and diluting the information space with noise in the process.

Five of the eight HubertTemba<X> accounts seem to be unimpressed with this thread. The other three can't make up their minds.