How did this duo of newly-created IFTTT bots get so many retweets on their tweets with embedded ISIS videos despite having almost no followers? #TuesdayThoughts
(Some of the accounts mentioned in this thread got suspended while we were doing the research.)
cc: @ZellaQuixote
(Some of the accounts mentioned in this thread got suspended while we were doing the research.)
cc: @ZellaQuixote
We downloaded the retweets of the video tweets from the two IFTTT ISIS bots (@3J2IEgC35AMih8R and @Id1kveiZWhI013x), and it turns out that most of the retweets are also automated: 250 of 257 retweets (97.3%) were sent via one of 101 different automation apps.
The accounts retweeting the two IFTTT ISIS bots didn't only automate their retweets of these two accounts: 89 of 122 accounts (72.9%) automated at least half of their tweets, and 65 of 122 (53.3%) are at least 80% automated. These accounts were mostly created in 2020.
The majority of the content retweeted by the botnet amplifying the two ISIS video bots doesn't seem to be extremist material. It's mostly advertising for various products and services (the three most-retweeted accounts appear to be Arabic-language porn accounts).
Here are the hashtags accompanying the videos tweeted by the two IFTTT botnets and retweeted by the larger botnet. We included Google's English translation of each hashtag (which should, as always, be taken with a grain of salt).
One last interesting detail: the videos being tweeted by the two IFTTT bots are actually hosted on a third account (@NEAKGPFm0GaDkQJ), which does not appear to be automated. We've seen similar strategies with previous ISIS botnets.
https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1212124563074514944
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