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A thread examining the origins of #DefundThePolice:

In 2014 & 2015, this hashtag began being spammed on Twitter. The first Twitter account to frequently spam this hashtag is one that is currently promoting Trump and QAnon.

[2] Another account which heavily spammed this hashtag in 2015 is currently inactive. It has not tweeted or liked any content for over seventeen months.

This account spammed this hashtag from August to December 2015.
[3] As you can see in that screenshot, this account has a Facebook page it kept linking to. That Facebook page can be found here: facebook.com/ThePeopleRISING

There is also a blog listed in the bio of this Twitter account.

The first thing that struck me was how active this FB was-
[4] leading up to the 2016 elections. I also noticed a trend where the account posted unambiguously pro-Putin content repeatedly.
[5] Furthermore, it routinely bashed "corporate media."

Here's an example of that.
[6] The operator of this account promoted different sources. Such as RT (Russia Today).
[7] They promoted RT while targeting Hillary Clinton, as well. In light of the Senate Intel Committee's report on Russian Active Measures, this seems to fit that mold.
[8] This account also promoted In The Now, which is also funded by the Russian government. This usage involved promoting Putin again.

buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/qu…
[9] The People Rising promoted Sputnik. It also pushed Your News Wire, which has a history of making false claims, & that article regarding election fraud is no exception.

The operator posted several times about election fraud, including a bizarre claim about the debates.
[10] Finally, they posted a very peculiar piece about how Trump could be defeated by voting Green. There's obviously no math that makes this work.

The Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg also encouraged people to vote Green, simply to fracture the vote.

Fin/
While you're here, if you want to read a thread about "Blake's Mustache," I've got you. That account is not what it seems.

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The Dragnet News + Observer of Troll Armies*
@dragnetizen
A thread for Progressives:

You ever feel like you're experiencing Groundhog's Day? I've been experiencing this feeling ever since the 2020 primary season began.

I would like to illustrate this by reviewing a shapeshifting account which operated from April 2015 to July 2016. Image
[2] The first thing I'd like to note is that this account is just one of many that were never cleaned up by Twitter. Perhaps one might believe that Twitter has taken this issue seriously. But have they?

What happened in 2016 on social media was a matter of volume. That volume -
[3] has not been addressed. Twitter has continuously low-balled the volume, as seen by the initial numbers they revealed to the public which kept growing larger due to pressure from reporters, investigators & Congress.

I digress. Let's take a look at the early life of this acct ImageImageImageImage
Read 18 tweets
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The Dragnet News
@dragnetizen
[1] Have you ever stopped and thought about the mechanics of @threadreaderapp? You can write a long sentence simply directed at that account, and so long as you include the key word that it is looking for, it will respond and provide a thread. This same functionality can be -
[2] exploited by malicious actors, who can set up a bot to find any tweets that are directed at a specific user, like, say @realDonaldTrump. And if you mention a specific term, perhaps Putin or Russia or Moscow, and you've reached a certain minimum threshold of interactions, -
[3] said bot will respond with a meme or an auto-generated text that works algorithmically to ensure it isn't too repetitive. It can have a database of memes or videos that it selects from, as well.

And if you interact with said bot, another user might suddenly appear to -
Read 6 tweets
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The Dragnet News
@dragnetizen
A thread on a matter I've been thinking about and digging into for a bit:

[1] New evidence has come to light which further supports a theory I've had, based on the timing of certain events. For instance, NATO StratCom recently performed a study on manipulation service providers.
[2] The report on this study can be found here.

buzzfeednews.com/article/albert…
[3] They found that only 3 of the 100 impostor Twitter accounts were removed from Twitter after reporting. This equates to 97% of the fraudulent social media accounts on Twitter remaining active despite having been reported. Image
Read 20 tweets

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