Thread by @conspirator0

Meet @attacksn, @rubestguy, and @teddypitcher, a trio of spamtastic clickbait bots. They sport a whopping 403688 followers between them, including some of you reading this. #ClickbaitBots #ThisCollageIsADuckingEyesore #WednesdayWisdom

cc: ZellaQuixote

@attacksn @rubestguy @teddypitcher Although these three accounts theoretically tweet via the Twitter website, they're pretty obviously automated: they maintain a rhythm of tweeting once every ~40 seconds 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (with a couple of apparent outages.)

@attacksn @rubestguy @teddypitcher These bots link an ever-changing lineup of clickbait websites, some of which appear to have been shut down and replaced (leafviralnewss -> leafviralnewss1). 99.97% of tweets contain links (@teddypitcher is presently shadowbanned and thus excluded from portions of this analysis.)

@attacksn @rubestguy @teddypitcher Who's following these accounts? Based on profile hashtags usage, they've farmed a sizable #maga and smaller but significant #resistance audience. 33.9% of @attacksn's followers are non-English accounts, while the other two have almost exclusively English-language followers.

@attacksn @rubestguy @teddypitcher One more interesting note: the profiles of these accounts contain multiple references to Russia - a link to a .ru website, a link to a (probably) non-automated Russian account on @rubestguy's profile, and arguably the name @rubestguy itself.

@attacksn @rubestguy @teddypitcher We don't consider this to be proof of geographic origin and thus won't be calling these accounts "Russian bots", but we do find it noteworthy.

@attacksn @rubestguy @teddypitcher Belated update: these three spambots are being promoted via follow lists/trains on both sides of the aisle (and on non-political lists as well.) One or more of them has appeared on at least 147 such lists since the beginning of 2018.

(example list tweets of each type included)