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Here's an interesting group of ten accounts. All were created on July 13th 2019, all mention #BlackLivesMatter, black history, or both in their profiles, and all tweet on nearly identical schedules.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@ZellaQuixote This network began its existence on July 13th, 2019. The creator of the accounts seems to have repeated the same process for all ten: create account, retweet one of a selected set of tweets (@repjohnlewis was particularly popular), then rinse and repeat.
@ZellaQuixote @repjohnlewis Although these accounts theoretically tweet via the Twitter website, the degree of synchronization strongly suggests automation. Every couple of hours, all ten post a tweet within minutes of each other.
@ZellaQuixote @repjohnlewis Another sign that these accounts are likely bots: repetition. Not only do they retweet many of the same tweets, they also post identical "original" tweets (most of which are actually famous quotes/copies of old tweets.)
@ZellaQuixote @repjohnlewis The repeated tweets are generally accompanied by hashtags, which do vary from tweet to tweet. "Black" and "Africa" feature prominently both in the hashtags and in the overall content of the tweets ("white", "people", and "nation" are also common outside the hashtags.)
@ZellaQuixote @repjohnlewis One more interesting detail: each account's profile features a bitly link. Clicking it pops up a warning from Twitter that the site (which theoretically sells T-shirts) may be unsafe or malicious.
