Thread by @conspirator0

Here's a weird little trio of retweet bots that has surfaced in a couple of our recent analyses: @Igor_Mizzi, @silviaz80, and @mammanna56. The accounts operate on extremely similar schedules and tweet via custom apps with rather verbose names.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

@Igor_Mizzi @silviaz80 @mammanna56 @ZellaQuixote Each of the three bots follows 500 accounts and is followed by ~2500. The sets overlap somewhat; overall, 13946 accounts follow or are followed by the three accounts in the network. 1956 of these accounts (14%) appear to be automated themselves (mostly promotional/spam accounts.)

@Igor_Mizzi @silviaz80 @mammanna56 @ZellaQuixote Over 99% of the traffic from @Igor_Mizzi, @silviaz80, and @mammanna56 is automated, but they do have occasional (potentially) organic tweets sent via website/phone app, including their oddly-similar pinned tweets. The rest of the original tweets are mostly about contests/games.

@Igor_Mizzi @silviaz80 @mammanna56 @ZellaQuixote The three accounts' automated tweets are all retweets. The content to retweet seems to be drawn from the timelines of accounts they follow/are followed by. Promotional offers make up the bulk of the material retweeted; 57% of (recent) retweets contain either "win" or "giveaway."