[Thread] 1/ This one is on Iraq and related to Moqtada al Sadr and his supporters. A friend got in touch with regards to two particular hashtags "Support Moqtada" and With you on Son of Al Sadr" (ادعم مقتدى and معك يابن الصدر ). I analysed them and found the following:
2/ Some context: Moqtada Al Sadr has been argued to be leading a counter-revolution against Iraqi protesters that he had initially supported. Reuters reported that 8 people were killed after forces loyal to Sadr stormed a protest camp in Najaf
3/ Following these egregious acts of violence a note was circulated on an account apparently affiliated with supporters of Moqtada Al Sadr, imploring those with Twitter accounts to tweet support for Al Sadr on the mentioned hashtags. 
4/ I downloaded around 20,000 interactions from the 'support Moqtada' hashtag. These were produced by around 5100 unique accounts. What is quite astonishing is that around 16-17% of all the accounts in the sample were created on a single day - 6th February; 865 accounts!
5/ Most of the accounts created on 6th Feb have gibberish handles which suggest either 1) they were generated rapidly 2) they defaulted to Twitter's suggestion. 676 of the 865 handles have the maximum number of characters allowed (15), further suggesting they were created hastily
6/ There are tweets in English and Arabic, suggesting they are targeting regional and international audiences. A lot of pictures are being shared. Most of those using the hashtag are lionizing Moqtafa ( unsurprisingly)
7/ This isn't fake news per se, but certainly an influence campaign. What we can say with some confidence is that hundreds of new accounts joined Twitter in order to tweet praise of Moqtada al Sadr at a time when he and his supporters are being criticised by the media. These
8/ accounts have sufficient similarities to suggest they were created quickly and with purpose. Whether or not they all represent real individual is hard to determine. Certainly it could be, but it could quite easily be a small number of individuals opening multiple accounts.
9/ One has to ask. How many people already not on Twitter would be likely to join upon seeing such a call, in order to immediately and unquestioningly tweet praise. I for one who not know.
