Thread by @benimmo

Quick thread on #NancyPelosiFakeNews, because I've been having a few questions on it.

BLUF: critics of the Iranian regime launched it, President Trump boosted it.

Some pushing by hyperactive accounts, but it doesn't look massively manipulated so far.

This thread by @conspirator0 gives a good rundown: hashtag starts in Iranian circles, content in Persian and English. Launch time was consistent with a UK location (around 0930 GMT).

https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1216753192068714496

The hashtag started here, as a response to @RNCResearch's take on a clip from a Pelosi interview.

The Persian post came first, English explanation over an hour later.

Note the difference in retweets.

Some of the early drivers in both languages were hyper-tweeting, 150-300 posts each.

Today was not an isolated case. Some of the same accounts heavily pushed #IraniansDetestSoleimani (Jan 6) and #IranProtests (Jan 11), with hundreds of posts each.

(h/t @TwitonomyApp)

But it took off after Trump retweeted six posts with the hashtag, lending it his 70 million followers.

For any influence operation, getting a high-profile amplifier is a major win.

Incidentally, that meme was posted on Reddit on Jan 6.

Attributed to Facebook, but no link given. Anyone seen the original?

reddit.com/r/TheRightCant…

Calculating the coefficient of traffic manipulation for the first 50k tweets, it scored 18.5.

That indicates some attempt at manipulation, but not massive.

#IraniansDetestSoleimani scored 45.6. Far more heavily gamed.

(CTM here, h/t @polbots: comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/worki…)

Ultimately, the win for this hashtag was the Trump retweet, moving it out of Iranian-activist circles to a much bigger audience.

It's a case study in why influence ops target high-profile amplifiers.

Something for all parties to bear in mind as the 2020 election nears.