[Thread] 1/ Right now #زيطوط_خاين is trending. It translates as Zitout is a traitor. Former diplomat Mohamed Zitout has been accused of opposing the upcoming elections in Algeria, which are supported by the existing regime. Many see this regime as a continuation of the old guard.
2/ This trend is dominated by suspicious accounts. I downloaded about 5,975 interactions/tweets by around 2,640 accounts. I then analysed these accounts to see if any were bots or trolls. 838 or 14% of the accounts were created between Sept 2019 and Dec 2019. 
3/ The average number of accounts created per month since Feb 2007 is about 19. This figure shoots up in September 2019, where the average becomes around 291 accounts per month. What's more, in Sept 2019, around 200 of these accounts were created in just 3 days.
4/ We can also see that 154 accounts were created today, on 8th December, when the trend began. Many will remember that the September accounts were created on the same day as those accounts that tweeted on the hashtags ماتهدرش_باسمي and الجزائر_تنتخب
5/ So what we are seeing is a continuation of a suspicious influence campaign trying to get Algerians to vote in the elections, or denounce those who criticise the vote. This propaganda/deception/influence network has been around since September 2019 and is still active.
6/ So in sum, at least 14% of the accounts using the hashtag are most likely bots or potentially trolls. 14% is an estimate based on obvious anomalies. The actual figure is probably higher but I am making an estimate based on minimizing false positives.
