Thread by @marcowenjones

[Thread on #Algerie] 1/ Many of you will have read my last thread on two hashtags. One of the hashtags, #الجزاير_تنتخب (Algeria votes), is trending today with around 11.6k tweets. I have done an analysis this morning to see if there has been any change and yes, there has....

2/ The hashtag has been argued by some as a malicious tactic to divide opposition by encouraging people to vote in the elite-led elections in December. In the last thread I found a large proportion of accounts (12%) on both hashtags were created September 2019, with 8%

3/ being created in the space of just two days - 22nd and 23rd September. In today's analysis I looked at 5,244 unique accounts. In this sample, which include a number of the accounts mentioned previously, the number of suspicious accounts has increased again...

4/ Now we can see that, 1071 of all accounts were created in September 2019. That's around 20% of the entire sample. In addition to this, approx 260 new suspicious accounts have been created on 29th September (yesterday). These are brand new, created yesterday!

5/ So 678 accounts were created in just three days, around 13% of the whole sample (which starts back in 2007). Many of the accounts have only a singular tweet, with just the hashtag. So to sum up, manipulation and electoral integrity in #Algeria is very much in doubt. #Algerie