Thread by @conspirator0

Early observations on tonight's #DemDebate/#DemocraticDebate tweets:

• More tweets than the last debate; peaked at over 5K tweets/minute vs 3.5K
• Most tweeted about candidates thus far: Sanders and Warren. Despite not being in the debate, Yang beat Steyer.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

@ZellaQuixote We updated our dataset of #DemDebate/#DemDebate7/#DemocraticDebate tweets to include the 10 hours immediately before and after the last debate. All the numbers got bigger, but @BernieSanders and @ewarren are still the most discussed candidates.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren Retweet network for #DemDebate/#DemDebate7/#DemocraticDebate. Sanders was a hot topic on both sides of the aisle, while Warren was discussed mostly by the left. Gabbard has the distinction of being the only candidate whose own #DemDebate tweets were largely boosted by the right.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren Next, we ran VADER sentiment analysis on the tweets mentioning each candidate. Sentiment scores for Warren, Sanders, and Biden increased slightly, while scores for Steyer and Gabbard plummeted.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren What other hashtags turned up alongside #DemDebate/#DemDebate7/#DemocraticDebate? #AmericaNeedsYang was the most frequent, with a couple other Yang hashtags thrown in for good measure. The #MAGA contingent added a number of hashtags about a Trump rally to the mix.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren What websites did folks link in #DemDebate tweets? A mix of Western MSM, official campaign websites, and a special guest appearance by Breitbart. Buttigieg's site was the most frequent of the candidate sites, with Sanders, Gabbard, and Warren virtually tied for second place.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren We didn't see much automated #DemDebate activity (occasional tweets from bots/botnets we've already described, mostly), but one thing stuck out like a sore thumb: a group of trend-hijacking accounts offering "free followers and likes" via what looks like a Baidu link.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren Here's another style of spammy tweet used by the "free followers and likes" accounts. It says it's YouTube, so what could possibly go wrong? #DidWeMentionYetThatYouReallyShouldNotClickTheDuckingLinks

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren We checked out the "free followers and likes" links via Tor. They don't actually lead to YouTube or Baidu; they instead redirect to obscure sites promising free followers if you hand over absolute control of your Twitter account, basically. Needless to say, we didn't try it.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren We did however notice that "tuena sedae", the app promising free followers, is also one of the (many) apps being used to post the "free followers" tweets. Folks who sign up hoping for free followers are likely unwittingly donating their own accounts to the botnet.

@ZellaQuixote @BernieSanders @ewarren How big is this network? We found 289 accounts posting the "free followers and likes" tweets via 100 distinct apps in the past ~10 days. We saw signs that some of the traffic is shadowbanned, so there are probably more.

Once more with feeling: Don't click dodgy links!