Thread by @3r1nG

I've been working on this research for what seems like an eternity: Visualizing Cyber Harassment

Content warning: this blog contains racist and anti-semitic language and terminology associated with sexual assault. erin-gallagher.medium.com/visualizing-cy…

I collected data over several months in 2019 to analyze & visualize part of a trolling network that some researchers have referred to as The Shed. Instead of a fixed group of known users, it's more like a hydra that is constantly regenerating new heads. erin-gallagher.medium.com/visualizing-cy…

Due to the complexity and constant fluctuation of this network, visualizing their digital footprint was very challenging. This research includes data visualizations of 316 sock puppet accounts for 5 unique personas associated with this trolling network. erin-gallagher.medium.com/visualizing-cy…

Harassment campaigns by swarms of trolls using fake accounts are disruptive to their targets' lives but what these campaigns actually look like is hard to visualize. The difficulty in understanding what a troll swarm looks like creates several problems:

erin-gallagher.medium.com/visualizing-cy…

It's not possible to identify who is running these accounts based on public Twitter data but I found 26 socks with the same branding & identity markers as a fake antifa account that a Twitter spokesman attributed to white supremacist group Identity Evropa. erin-gallagher.medium.com/visualizing-cy…

This blog has overlapped with my research on fake antifa accounts in ways I did not expect (part of the reason why this has taken so long to finish)

https://twitter.com/3r1nG/status/1318568442195267585

These tactics are endemic to trolling and harassment on social media so I hope this research helps to illustrate the digital footprint of just one part of a trolling network and furthers public understanding of the scale of the problem. erin-gallagher.medium.com/visualizing-cy…