Thread by @conspirator0

Sometimes one doesn't have to look very far to find multiple suspicious Twitter accounts, because one such account (@EmilyGauthi) conveniently likes a previous thread and joins the ranks of one's own followers, inspiring curiosity about said account's network.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

@EmilyGauthi @ZellaQuixote By searching for tweets linking the website linked from @EmilyGauthi's tweets (fiverr(dot)com/wordpressdony), we find 12 accounts that appear devoted to promoting it. All have very similar profile text, and all but the first one created (@wordpressdony) have female profile pics.

@EmilyGauthi @ZellaQuixote @wordpressdony Although these accounts all tweet via theoretically organic means (website, phone app), we find it plausible that they are automated for multiple reasons. First, the schedules are all fairly similar, with multiple accounts frequently active at the same time.

@EmilyGauthi @ZellaQuixote @wordpressdony Second, these accounts are incredibly repetitive. Their original tweets (non-retweets) all promote the fiverr page, and most are repeated verbatim both within and across accounts. It's possible someone is doing this manually, but automating it would likely be far less work.

@EmilyGauthi @ZellaQuixote @wordpressdony These 12 accounts also repeat retweets, and they're quite single-minded about the topic: almost all of their retweets are follower-growth schemes. This network appears to be piggybacking on these to generate the audience for its advertising spam.