Thread by @jamesmb

Let's have a chat about digital diversion, manipulation, Twitter bots and the misspelling of Dominic Cummings' name...

1/11

No doubt, since @BorisJohnson refused to sack #DominicCummings yesterday, you will have noted that, among the Twitter trending topics, have been a lot of misspellings of Dominic Cummings' name.

This is not a coincidence.

2/11

This has been going on for a few hours now - and it is still the case.

So why are there so many versions of Dominic Cummings doing the rounds? And why should you ensure that you use the correct spelling and not one of the trending ones?

3/11

Firstly, why does it happen?

Well, fortunately, we know the MO of Dominic Cummings and those behind the Leave Campaign - so we know the answer. Here's how it works in simple steps:

1) A story happens that you want to suppress.

4/11

2) News agencies start tweeting stories that use common keywords - for example, Dominic Cummings.

3) People who want to influence events coalesce around a hashtag (for example, #SackCummings).

4) These hashtags start trending.

5/11

5) You have two options - either (a) try to get a different story to trend or (b) subvert the trending topics. (b) is simpler.

6) You pay tweet farms to start mass-tweeting using a similar but altered hashtag.

6/11

7) These misspellings start trending and, when people start typing # followed by the first few letters of the hashtag, they are given the misspelled version as an auto-fill and they mistakenly use it.

7/11

8) At the same time, you direct your Twitter army (pair or otherwise) to use the misspelled hashtag to keep it in the trending topics so as to suppress the original, correct spellings by moving them down the list.

8/11

9) When people click on the trending *misspelled* hashtag, they are NOT directed to the real news stories in steps 2 and 3 because those original stories do not include the misspelling.

9/11

So those inexplicably misspelled Twitter trending topics are part of a game in which you become key in suppressing legitimate news stories.

Now you know. Even now, Dominic Cummings @OdysseanProject is playing you.

10/11

And I will say it again. @OdysseanProject Dominic Cummings is not some genius. He has a very small, very limited playbook and some gullible people who believe he's a god. Learn the playbook and you can defeat him and his mates. Don't and he will continue to control you.

11/11