The Trolls Are Back: My latest story w @asebenius looks at new research showing how social media attacks on Hong Kong’s protesters have persevered despite take downs bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via @bpolitics @pelstrom @dantenkate
Out of around 30,000 accounts that tweeted about the protests, about a third were created since August says @AstroscreenHQ and @donara_barojan
They follow a pattern: less than 10 followers, uses a generic photo to disguise identity, tweet primarily about protests, use generic hashtags like #hongkongprotest to avoid detection. Many posts now appear in English in apparent bid to sway global opinion, says @donara_barojan
Facebook says its cooperating with other tech companies and security researchers to remove manipulation campaigns, while Twitter says platform manipulation has no place on its service, and the company will take enforcement action to stop it. This is no easy task.
“This arms race between platforms and malign actors isn’t going away,” says @JakeWallis_ASPI "Hyper-connectivity creates vulnerabilities that actors with various motivations will continue to exploit.”
