Thread by @bobs_house

Quick Public Service THREAD about Who Is Good, Who Is Real, and How To Tell
1/8

We all know there are bots, trolls and complicit Americans (a/k/a treasonweasels) all over Twitter.
We all know Twitter won't properly police their site because the Russians own a big piece of it.
So what if we're unsure of someone's identity or loyalties?
2/8

Twitter verifications can be trusted as far as I am aware, but that doesn't apply to most accounts.
Bad hats often have sock-puppet accounts. They also impersonate former Twitter accounts, like Broadsword6.
Who can we trust? I have three tips.
3/8

First tip: Off-Twitter research can sort the sheep from the goats. This applies mainly to public figures, including rather low-level famous people like Claude. The Treasonweasel list is based on things like who pays a listed person. (Example: RussiaToday=bad sign)
4/8

Second tip: What does the person act like?
Parroting Kremlin talking points can mean the person is coming to you from St. Petersburg, or that they've been fooled. So ask yourself: Does the person listen to reason? Kremlin employees like to keep the argument going.
5/8

Other Kremlin classics include:
-advocating more extreme views/pushing you toward the fringe
-suddenly losing interest in the discussion and never returning
-posting prefabricated statements (bad English, nonspecific insults, arguments that don't quite fit what you just said)
6/8

Third tip: Is the person an ally who got banned, back with a new account? Watch how they act and speak. Words are my superpower and I feel like I could tell after listening to the person for a while, but people like the Wizard of the Tundra post in unique styles
7/8

that could be imitated, but can't be duplicated. Spicy, Nethery and Broadsword6 are other good examples.

That's all I got for tonight; feel free to add your tips here.
8/8

I've got a couple things to add to this thread today.

You can search any name along with the hashtag #treasonweasel to find them on my handy list (which also is my pinned tweet). This applies to media outlets & people, politicians, and other well-known figures like Roseanne.

I've amassed a collection of real-life (or real-Twitter, I guess) examples under the hashtag #ThingsKremlinBotsSay. Any of them may or may not be an actual Kremlin bot, but their statements are typical. That brings us to my next tweet: More Kremlin Talking Points.

More Kremlin Talking Points:
-EU bad
-NATO bad
-America bad
-CIA bad [Accusing them of stuff works especially well because they can't deny or counter it]
-People are irrationally afraid of Russia
-Russia is EXTREMELY put-upon

Still More Kremlin Talking Points:
-Democracy doesn't really work
-Votes/Elections are rife with hacking and cheating
-There's no justice
-Economic inequality exists
-Social divisions are huge and unfixable
-Journalism is compromised
-You should be upset about all these things

These points, which I am ripping off from @ChiefCovfefe, make a great addition to this thread.
Look out for:
Anyone doxxing or retweeting doxxes, especially trolls that dox
Anyone posting private info of a private, non-malicious account (even if politically disagreeable to some)

The Chief says beware of:
False grifting claims and other false claims. It's not hard for individuals to verify, and strange if people repeat such claims without verifying.

"Doxxers are seldom overt, they're coy to avoid ToS violations......but they make it VERY clear they have compromising information (under the law that's blackmail and harassment).They of course often have a sock or a useful idiot to do the actual doxxing."

"But there's a few redline accounts that anyone retweeting will get a block and report over.
You may have been blocked for other reasons. People's accounts are reportedly being hacked and blocks they never made being added. The hackers often brag about their injections." /end

Even More Kremlin Talking Points:
-United Nations bad [h/t dominique6138]
-Hillary bad
-Comey ruined Hillary's chances (not Russia 🙄)
-Refusing to let go of ancient history

Kremlin techniques for causing mischief among us:
-Using blocklists as excuses to cause trouble
-Kvetching about old misunderstandings that got settled months ago
-Tattling, playground style. Don't come and tell *me* if Johnny said this or that about Susie.

Specific to this neck of the Twitter woods:
-Calling Tundra 'Daniel' (an old faildox)
-Garland is on drugz!1!
-Referring to #ScoobyGang or #TeamPillowForts in a way that fails to account for our awesomeness [Suck it, Nance. Hanging names on Americans never works]

In this thread I took apart an exchange, tweet by tweet, to show how Russian attacks are designed to dovetail into our civil discourse.
WARNING: Nobody involved is necessarily a bad guy. Looking back, I think PeResists just said something they could use.

https://twitter.com/bobs_house/status/1032212628905635840