We're not quite sure what to make of this yet, but we found something odd when looking at the followers of three popular #MAGA accounts: @elenochle, @SheepKnowMore, and @rexxurection. All three show a surge in followers created on or after March 13, 2020.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
By and large, the #MAGA followers created after the 3/13 surge look similar to those created before. They do use noticeably more hashtags and tweet more QAnon content than those created earlier in 2020; a few other metrics also show potentially significant differences.
What's going on here? We don't know (yet), but two hypotheses spring to mind:
1) Some entity or entities started creating a lot of #MAGA sockpuppets in March
2) Something happened in March that caused lots of Trump supporters who weren't previously on Twitter to join the site.
1) Some entity or entities started creating a lot of #MAGA sockpuppets in March
2) Something happened in March that caused lots of Trump supporters who weren't previously on Twitter to join the site.
We'll amend this thread as we learn more, and we're curious as to others' thoughts on what might be going on here.
One more thing - we saw no equivalent surge in new account creations among various left-wing and spammy apolitical accounts; this phenomenon appears to be specific to #MAGA.
