Thread by @conspirator0

We decided to take a closer look at the #YangGang hashtag in light of its prominent appearance in this earlier analysis (most frequently used hashtag by accounts that retweet @AndrewYang.)

cc: @ZellaQuixote

https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1111677504526258178

We downloaded tweets containing #YangGang, removing tweets unrelated to Andrew Yang's campaign from the early data. We ended up with 28863 original tweets from 9146 accounts; the first on-topic use appears to be on March 20, 2018.

Something potentially interesting turns up when looking at the creation dates of the accounts - 1038 of 9146 (11.3%) were created within the last three months. Those accounts tweeted 5897 of 28863 #YangGang tweets (20.4%).

Before looking further at the accounts in question, is this actually an anomaly? We used seven other hashtags related to 2020 candidates as a control group; #YangGang traffic contains a noticeably higher percentage of new accounts than the others.

Retweet network for #YangGang. The 1038 newly created accounts are tightly integrated, indicating that the traffic they are generating is being picked up and amplified by other accounts.

What media sources do the recently-made #YangGang accounts link? Aside from Yang's campaign site, RT/Russia Today, Daily Stormer, Reddit, Breitbart, and ZeroHedge are the most common. The right-wing sources are an unusual choice for accounts promoting a Democratic candidate.

Speaking of Reddit, there's a lot of activity related to the #YangGang hashtag on Reddit, including meta-discussion of the Twitter activity, ranging from analysis to repeated linking of Twitter polls accompanied by the suggestion to vote for Yang in said polls.

#YangGang is also present on 4chan, although as is often the case with 4chan, it's somewhat difficult to actually be certain of the motives or stances of the individuals posting.

Footnote: the hashtags used as a control group have far less 4chan/Reddit crossover than #YangGang.