[Thread]. 1/ I did an analysis of the followers of @DefundBBC . Filtered out those who hadn't tweeted since June (and so were not using the "Defund BBC" hashtag but just following the account) Ranked them by who had tweeted the most, discovered the majority had blocked me. >
2/ Pretty sure I've never interacted with any of them. But I am curious what you all think. Here are some of the accounts> @KulganofCrydee @siaayrom @fiona_fionnagal @maseratlilady1 @princessofwails @2tweetaboutit @Roodgridance @HarridgePike @Jenfullick @pam30301 
3/ Some more... @Scotlandbest (this pro Boris Scotland one is gold) @mjs121272 @yvettehenson @grieve51166 @oldroberts953 @carlyjay20 @ukipvoter @jaelmolew ...
4/@EylesGeoff (this guy loves the WTO), @flappospammo, @milsomgillian (very stern), Anyway you get the picture but I could keep going....
5/ My questions are? Why are so many prolific and vocal (and seemingly right wing accounts) accounts blocking me when I've never interacted with them? Presumably I am on some block list, but why? I do not troll people, but I am a disinformation researcher. So why would I be
6/ put on a block list? Are the accounts worried about being studied? Did someone tell them to do this because a small core of bad actors don't want a network to be studied? Because some political hack doesn't want people to leave their echo chambers and interact with others?
7/ I find it odd that a group who so often talk about 'democracy' should act so cagily. Bear in mind too that these accounts are some of the most active, with most of the ones mentioned having between 100,000 and 400,000 tweets apiece. I didn't have time to check them all
8/ (there are thousands). Now why should I be blocked by so many accounts unless they are all following the same instructions/advice to block me/follow a particular block list. I think however way you interpret it it seems bizarre.
9/ Either people are fearful of getting out their echo chamber (if they are real of course), a small group of people do not want people leaving their echo chamber and thus advise them to do this, or they are trying to hide something and avoid being studied.
footnote: this does not interfere with my analysis, it is still straightforward to analyse these accounts.
