Thread by @conspirator0

Stop trying to make #Calexit happen. #Calexit isn't going to happen.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

In case you missed it, #Calexit trended in the wee hours, sometime between 1:15 and 1:20 PDT on April 6th, 2020. Traffic mostly doesn't look automated, but that doesn't necessarily make it authentic; for one thing, there are a LOT of recently created accounts. . .

#Calexit has been a perennial favorite of overseas disinfo operations, and today's trend doesn't disappoint. Traffic is in a mix of Farsi and English; the general theme is that Iran is eager to recognize the independence of and work with a post-secession Republic of California.

Retweet network for recent #Calexit traffic. The two largest nodes, @a_raefipour1 and @syjebraily1, both claim Iranian residence and tweet mostly in Farsi; they appear to have piggybacked on a video message tweeted by the official @YesCalifornia account.

Interesting footnote: some of our older threads discussing the #Calexit hashtag are now picking up likes from day-old Farsi #Calexit sockpuppet accounts.

Update: 24 of the recently created accounts that participated in the #Calexit trend have subsequently renamed themselves.

Additionally, today's #Calexit trend contains a number of new accounts that seem to have been created for the purpose of pushing the hashtag: 288 accounts created in 2020 that used #Calexit in their first tweet, in at least 50% of all their tweets, or both.