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Twitter suspended 44 accounts that used Russian troll election interference tactics, supporting Trump and Sanders while attacking Biden and any Democratic front-runner. nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Twitter said the accounts were suspended for platform manipulation and spam.
The suspended accounts matched known Russian IRA signatures for content and behavior data.
The inauthentic accounts recycled the Russian IRA manual, adopting fake personas of American activists and drawing audiences to the edges during the primaries.
The accounts retweeted trolls based in Ghana and linked to Russian operations.
The accounts suspended in March and May took breaks during Russian holidays and stopped tweeting when Russian offices were closed during coronavirus lockdown, potentially indicating they require or are required to be in a physical office location to do their job.
The accounts copy-pasted viral tweets by real users and reused text, memes and themes by identified IRA accounts. This may have been to curb linguistic giveaways. When they wrote original copy they slipped, struggling with word order, "a" and "the" and possessive.
“I'm going to have a #CoronaParty at my local outdoor gun range, against your demands I'm going to the range,” tweeted suspended user Jona_Whitmore, whose bio expressed fondness for tattoos, America, and small government. “Go ahead and arrest me for my #2A rights I DARE YOU.”
“I was gonna vote early to avoid crowd but there's a lot of people,” tweeted imani_tsunami, a suspended account that identified as a black woman. “Still voted for Bernie because I'm sick of all the lying corporate puppets like Biden… #FloridaPrimary.”
Sample of suspended troll accounts using Russian troll tactics identified by Clemson researchers (1/2):

@Jona_Whitmore archive.is/ARBOQ
@franciscoleon8 archive.is/xgErG
@imani_tsunami archive.is/xpsWG
@CasuallyPerla archive.is/apJ9z
Sample of suspended troll accounts using Russian troll tactics identified by Clemson researchers (2/2):

indra_4 archive.is/q0Gnw
MadisonSaysWhat archive.is/vW1PJ
Cassss0_archive.is/u2QCF
MsAmanda_speakshttp://archive.is/1YN6S
The suspended accounts used stolen profile photos. @franciscoleon8 photo was a flipped stock photo image.
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Ben Popken
@bpopken
Screed may be "nexus to a potential hate crime," El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a press conference: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i… by @oneunderscore__
@oneunderscore__ El Paso suspect's alleged essay feels similar to pamphlets spread by KKK during 70's, said James Cavanaugh, a former ATF special agent-in-charge.

“These guys can reach out to any soul on the internet and poison them,” he said. "It's digital hate."
@oneunderscore__ Don't take anything in these kinds of writing at face value, experts say, they're propaganda proximity mines left behind to trigger and validate hate and fear.
Read 11 tweets
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Ben Popken
@bpopken
Now that the Pats have beat the Rams let's address some blatant distortions around our NBC News story taking a snapshot of how candidate Gabbard has been promoted by Russian outlets since her announcement Jan 11.
It's erroneous and not headline-worthy for @ggreenwald or anyone to assert we "relied" on the analysis of any 3rd party firm. That's not true.
The nutgraph or meat of our story compares the volume and tone of the coverage on RT, Sputnik, and Russia Insider for Gabbard compared to her other dem rivals. She has twice the stories of her nearest competitor, and they're all favorable, despite having low voter recognition.
Read 20 tweets
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Ben Popken
@bpopken
"Learn to code" was tweeted at me by a sketchy account. I reported it as abusive behavior as part of targeted harassment. Twitter suspended the account within 20 minutes.

Journalists if they tweet "learn to code" at you don't stay silent, take a moment to report it.
Twitter will review it and if they determine it violates their rules against abusive behavior they will take action.
Hahah I don't care and my feelings aren't hurt if you tweet learn to code at me. I used to enter in QBASIC programs from the back of 3-2-1 contact and wrote a homework keeper on my TI-83. Ahh, memories. Then I got interested in other things.
Read 8 tweets

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