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NEW + exclusive:

Viral pro-Trump tweets came from fake African American spam accounts, Twitter says

nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
Pro-Trump Twitter accounts posing as African Americans claimed they were Democrats until a month ago.

Several of these posts had over 10,000 retweets.

Turns out their profile pictures were a stock photo and a Dutch model who had nothing to do with it.
nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
Here's @KRON619, an African-American who was brand new to the Trump train.

He's been a "Dem my whole life" until "I finally saw their racism." Over 12,000 retweets.

Turns out he's a stock photo.

nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
Here's @WentDemToRep, an African-American who has "been a Democrat my whole life" and "will be registering a Republican. 13k retweets.

His profile picture is a Dutch model who "called his mom because I was stressing out" over having his identity stolen.

nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
The fake African-American accounts @Kron619 and @WentDemToRep had their accounts suspended for "spam and platform manipulation" at the same time as @PeterGammo.

Peter's a real guy who said he doesn't have anything to do with the accounts then hung up.

nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
Kron619 was dormant since 2015. It reappeared in June to almost exclusively retweet/reply to PeterGammo.

Kron619, the fake African American account, accrued 20k more followers than Peter.

When WentDemToRepub joined Twitter, he instantly tagged them both.
nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
All of these accounts are down now for spam and "specifically, artificially manipulative behavior."

Five of these tweets proclaiming to be African-Americans who recently became pro-Trump had over 10,000 retweets in the last month.

Like this one.

nbcnews.com/tech/security/…
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More from @oneunderscore__ see all

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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
I'm talking with @mathewi and @BrandyZadrozny about QAnon right now.

Here's how I think we need to look at it in the next few months, and how we can best shine a light on a menace.

galley.cjr.org/public/convers…
When it comes to QAnon, we have to get out of the mindset that if it's on the internet it's not important.

This stuff is our politics now, even if I wish it wasn't. Let's get over the shock of how bad it is and deal with it.

People with radicalized friends don't have a choice.
Here's why QAnon's takeover of fringe communities is a public health threat, and how its danger can't be neatly presented in a rapsheet or a bodycount.
Read 4 tweets
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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
This should create a pretty good barometer for which congresspeople believe they need Q support in the future.

It will also be immediately be followed by the What About Antifa Act, but that's to be expected.
That was fast.
Can't stress enough how flagrantly antisemitic QAnon is, by the way. There are the common tropes, like repeatedly insisting the Rothschilds run the world, the persistent blood libel references, the idea the Pope is run by Jewish world leaders.

But there's also stuff like this.
Read 3 tweets
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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
Fascinating thing in the QAnon sphere today: Major Q influencers are calling all of these Q rallies, some drawing hundreds of people, a "false flag," likely because the signs, messages and backlash are humiliating when presented IRL. They insist this is an online-only movement.
Major Q influencers are disavowing today's Qanon rallies because they don't understand how unwieldy the movement has become.

These aren't just boomer memes and 4chan shitposters anymore. They're moms who were radicalized in wellness Facebook groups they've never even heard of.
Q followers are also clearly worried about violence. There's a fake viral flyer saying people in these marches are Secret Antifa Agents.

They point to a recent Q post that introduced their world to Fifth Columnists. They're worried something will pop off at one of these rallies.
Read 4 tweets

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