A bunch of accounts tweeted copies of the recent viral aerial video of sheep and sheepdog in action accompanied by the text "A sheepdog herding sheep, seen from the sky. Mesmerizing." What's going on?
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@ZellaQuixote We found 23 tweets containing "A sheepdog herding sheep, seen from the sky. Mesmerizing." and the video in question. The original was tweeted by @moorehn on Nov 22/23 (depending on your timezone), and was subsequently plagiarized by 22 accounts, most of them automated.
@ZellaQuixote @moorehn Shared tweet network for the "A sheepdog herding sheep, seen from the sky. Mesmerizing" accounts (accounts are connected if they've tweeted the same tweet at least once, excluding the sheep tweet.) This looks like multiple botnets and some solo acts rather than a single botnet.
@ZellaQuixote @moorehn The largest botnet lurking in the "A sheepdog herding sheep, seen from the sky. Mesmerizing" tweets consists of seven accounts, all with default profile pics and automation via IFTTT. Based on websites linked (shopping/rewards cards), they at first appear commercial in nature.
@ZellaQuixote @moorehn Not entirely, however. They clone a mix of promotional and political/media accounts, resulting in content that is a mix of commercial offers and tweets about political topics, mostly Trump, who is mentioned frequently both by name and Twitter handle.
@ZellaQuixote @moorehn One more demonstrable botnet: @BummBummBunny and @MephyNet, two IFTTT bots on a mission to copy @Otzelutz's tweets. (@Otzelutz appears to be a gaming account.) @CoinBadger may also be part of the network; it has cloned some but not all of the same tweets.
