Thread by @benimmo

Interesting traffic here on #MyFirstVoteForModi...

Some interestingly busy accounts, too.

Check out @SWEETY29259219. Created yesterday, 467 tweets already.

Per @TwitonomyApp, they're all retweets.

Or how about @Deepakk64155053? Created yesterday, 173 tweets since.

Per @TwitonomyApp, all but one was a retweet. The exception was word for word the same as posted by many other accounts.

These accounts posted over 160 times each on #MyFirstVoteForModi, per @Sysomos.

Given how much effort @Twitter is putting into stopping artificial manipulation, someone out there may be thinking the best way to avoid it would be to stand a batch of new accounts up, run them until they're busted, and start over.

Burner bots, in fact.

At that stage, it's a numbers game. Very few followers, high volume of posts, all (or almost all) retweets.

Trying to get spotted by the algorithm, more than actual human users.

Trend-crashing.

Again, though, not all the curious behaviour is on one side.

Traffic on #GoBackModi saw pretty intense engagement. The 50 most active posters today posted 7,586 times. That's not normal.

This one, for example. Per @Sysomos, it posted the hashtag 257 times.

Per @Twitonomy, its posts are practically all retweets.

Older than the pro-Modi accounts, though. March 2018.

Or this one. Per @Sysomos, 204 posts on the same hashtag.

22 days old, and 5,529 posts already.

Averaging over 260 posts a day. Even a +quiet+ day was over 100.

The attempts at manipulation aren't as massive as with #TNwelcomesModi or #GoBackModi, but they're there nonetheless.

Again, though, the follower numbers are low. This is about reaching the algorithm, not reaching people directly.