We started exploring the followers networks of some of the newly-created accounts that pushed the #ImpeachmentBackfire hashtag, and ran into a group of accounts tweeting "#us #2020" accompanied by memes of widely varying political stance. #FridayFeeling
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@ZellaQuixote We found 41 accounts with prolific #us #2020 image tweets. All were created Nov 2nd/3rd 2019, have similar schedules and similar names, and use Trump, the US flag, or the Statue of Liberty as their avatar. They appear to tweet via the Twitter website, but we suspect automation.
@ZellaQuixote This botnet retweets a variety of prominent accounts from both ends of the political spectrum, with @GovMikeHuckabee and @BernieSanders as the most frequent choices.
@ZellaQuixote @GovMikeHuckabee @BernieSanders What websites do these bots link? Primarily, a poorly-proofread T-shirt sales site by the name of teecookies(dot)co. Political and news sites also turn up as a result of the botnet's retweets (i.e., hannity(dot)com shows up because the bots retweet @seanhannity.)
@ZellaQuixote @GovMikeHuckabee @BernieSanders @seanhannity This botnet tweets two different variants of repetitive content:
- political memes accompanied by #us #2020
- promotional tweets hawking the T-shirt site that are assembled from a library of short phrases, resulting in a lot of similar tweets that aren't verbatim duplicates.
- political memes accompanied by #us #2020
- promotional tweets hawking the T-shirt site that are assembled from a library of short phrases, resulting in a lot of similar tweets that aren't verbatim duplicates.
