Thread by @marcowenjones

[Thread] 1/ This thread is on Qatar's long-awaited upcoming Shura elections, and manipulation on the hashtag 'elections for the Shura council'. I analyzed around 18000 interactions involving around 8600 unique accounts. #disinformation #deception

2/ The sample is from the last two days, and generally encompasses the majority of activity on the hashtag. (Of course the presence of manipulation doesn't discount any of the important issues being raised about electoral fairness and inclusion, but I am focusing on manipulation)

3/ Firstly. There is clear, unequivocal manipulation going on. If you look at the network graph below, it shows a large hub of accounts (green block), along with a separate pinkish constellation. The pinkish constellation shows an account being retweeted hundreds of times. Now..

4/ that is not unusual in of itself. But you'll notice 2 things.

1) The constellation is separate, meaning it's not well integrated with the more interactive community

2) I coloured edges by what app those accounts are using to tweet. In this case all those already separate

5/ accounts are tweeting using the same application, in this case, Twitter Web App, or the browser application, which is more often used for manipulation than say Android or iPhone. Once you look at the accounts too, you realise they are sockpuppets. Some examples coming up>

6/ Here is an Iraqi Westlife fan based in KSA.Only she's not, the account probably belonged to a British girl. Indeed the account was not scrubbed properly and the previous owner even posted a photo from 2014 of a surprise bday for a friend at Alton Towers (theme park in England)

7/ Also there's @billybumcrack ! aka, Fatima AlShaybani. He thinks Beady Eye are 'wank' but liked Oasis when Liam Gallagher was in the band. He's also really into the Shura Council elections. Guessing he is British. #disinformation #Qatar

8/ I could go on. You know how many of these sockpuppet accounts are in this cluster alone. Around 925! That's a lot. Whoever runs them has put their location as 'KSA', presumably as that's the target market/region. So who are they retweeting in this case? #disinformation

9/ Well they were retweeting Mubarak Al Yafei, an Emirates based media persona, a verified account, although the link in the bio goes to a suspended webpage - suspended due a lack of verification (so far). The tweet in question has since been deleted but you can see text below

10/ There are other suspicious clusters too. If you see below. Another account is boosting the elections hashtag, but as you can see it as a marketing/spam account. However, the tweet has around 630 retweets, almost all from fake accounts or hacked accounts. #disinformation

11/ It is also important to note that the aforementioned Mubarak Al Yafei is statistically the most influential tweeter in the network folowed by Qattar_Affairs, Kuwarimud and others. Interesting that Turkey affairs is also in there - Turkey Affairs is a sort of anti Erdogan

12/ anti-Qatar current regime account. I am not sure about Qattar Affairs - but it could be related? Anyway the dominant influential accounts are pushing a critical narrative about Qatar's elections, most notably about the exclusion of certain members of the Al Marra tribe.

13/ Many of the accounts appear to be UAE influencers or purportedly Saudi-based sock puppet accounts. Some are unattributed opposition accounts. Either way, at least 14% of the accounts active on the hashtag 'Elections for Shura Council" are sockpuppets/fake accounts #disinfo

14/ Anyway, that's it for now. What we are seeing is clearly external accounts jumping on and artificially amplifying a legitimate issue in order to distort and dominate the narrative, muddying the waters of facts and productive discussion. Classic Gulf Twitter #disinformation