[Thread] 1/ Regarding that viral tweet by @Lord_Sugar that sought to undermine the important role that media plays in democracy. It seems to have an interesting history. Alan Sugar posted the screenshot of the comment on 27th April. 
2/ The earliest known instance I have found of the tweet was posted on 23rd April on Facebook by a bloke called Andrew Wilson. He only has 35 friends. Even so, his post got 111000 shares and 20,000 comments! That's is incredible!
3/ Now plenty have noticed that since that thread twitter accounts have been seemingly engaging in copy and paste tactics, reproducing the message word-for-word. This screenshot from the Facebook post shows identical tweets repeating the same post word-for-word.
4/ Now given the virality of the FB post, it's possible that this is what some people unfairly call 'Boomer Twitter'. Genuine people just spreading the message for some unknown purpose (no one heard of RT). To me it seems suspicious, like that similar event last year with the
5/ boy on the Leeds hospital floor. You can still see some of the tweets on Twitter. However, I crossed checked the accounts with the ones on the screenshot someone posted on Facebook. At least one of the accounts (@jayneclarke7) that pasted it has been temporarily
6/ restricted by Twitter due to 'unusual' activity. Now 'unusual' could mean a few things, including automation or multiple accounts being run from the same IP presumably. It could also be a false positive. However, if Twitter has done this with a number of accounts, it's not
7/ easy to then get the data as it won't show up in the API (at least it didn't for me). In other words, it will be difficult to download those tweets that have subsequently been 'restricted' & thus be difficult to know the full scale of the operation (if it indeed it was one).
8/ Now copy and paste behaviour is not unique to Twitter. If you look on Facebook, you will see that many have copy and pasted the status verbatim (as opposed to sharing it). Of course it's possible many real people are doing this. The question is, is all of this behaviour really
9/ organic? I doubt that it is. Oh btw, just found another account that posted the comment verbatim and was temporarily restricted by Twitter. So whatever is happening is triggering Twitter's algorithm to view it as suspicious... This raises some interesting ethical issues...
10/ Firstly if we assume all these accounts are genuine, then groupthink by real human is leading a Twitter algorithm (essential computer script) to view real human behaviour as so monotonous and repetitive that it views it as robotic (how disturbing). Alternatively, the more
11/ plausible explanation is that some form of manipulation is going on, perhaps involving automation - but perhaps not. I am inclined to view these 'salt of the earth' FB posts that go viral, and replicate on Twitter as suspicious. This is exactly what happened last year.
12/ I am not denying the possibility of legitimate virality, but if I were PR guru like Cummings, of course the best propaganda is that which looks like it's coming from the grassroots, regular joes. That way it does not have the institutional taint so reviled by new right
13/ Alternatively, the original post could be genuine, but selectively boosted as its on message. Therefore it has an element of credibility but is amplified by a network of fake accounts. There are multiple explanations, but when promoting authoritarian media is the message
14/ I am inclined to think there is some foul play at hand, especially when some of the accounts get flagged as suspicious. Anyway, better get some sleep. Night all, and I hope you dream that we do not wake up with the muzzled press apparently desired by so many fellow Brits😏
