Thread by @conspirator0

This fragment of code generates text matching that found in the profiles of a recent wave of bots promoting Natalia Veselnitskaya. It's also been on the Internet since 2012 - has it been used elsewhere on Twitter?

cc: @ZellaQuixote

First, what does this code do? It doesn't actually create Twitter accounts - it assembles text by randomly selecting from a few sets of predefined phrases. A bot operator can then use the resulting text in profiles or tweets.

Due to the nature of Twitter search, we had considerably more luck finding tweets containing the phrases associated with this tool. We downloaded tweets going back to 1/1/2019, and filtered to accounts whose first 10 tweets contained at least two of the phrases in question.

We ended up with 2125 accounts, largely created in batches. Different groups are carrying out different missions, and some still await activation.

- Arabic tweets selling random stuff
- Korean tweets advertising adult services
- Spanish tweets about elections in Puebla, Mexico

H/T @extapdancer for the lead.