Another day, another evidence-free viral rumor. The claim that General Dynamics canceled their vaccine mandate appears to have originated with @AlexGiorgio6, a Twitter account that has no apparent connection to General Dynamics or any journalistic entity.

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
The @AlexGiorgio6 account did eventually supply a "source" for their claim that General Dynamics was dropping its vaccine mandate, but that "source" is an obscure website quoting an unsourced tweet from another random Twitter account (@WillRock2424). ImageImageImage
At least four "news" sites have now amplified this bit of disinformation: beforeitsnews(dot)com, sgtreport(dot)com, investmentwatchblog(dot)com, and notmainstreamnews(dot)us. All four "articles" consist of tweets repeating the rumor accompanied by no actual information. ImageImageImageImage
Like many accounts that start unsourced viral rumors, @AlexGiorgio6 apparently isn't a fan of commentary on the rumor(s) in question. Image
Still zero evidence whatsoever for this claim about @generaldynamics and therefore zero reason for any responsible person to retweet it, but that didn't stop a blue-check attorney with 262K followers from amplifying it and getting a crapton of retweets. ImageImage
If you want to slow the spread of disinformation, apply skepticism to dramatic claims presented without evidence even when the claims in question align with your political beliefs. There is no rational reason any of the narratives in this collage should've gotten traction. Image

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More from @conspirator0

12 Sep
It's a great day for a look at the astroturf network that followed @ElectionWiz (ID 1290635110149169152, formerly named @Wizard_Predicts among other things) back at the beginning of its Twitter career (immediately after its first follower, @Barnes_Law).

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This network consists of (at least) 7991 accounts, most of which were created in the latter half of 2020 or the first half of 2021. The accounts in the network all follow at least 20 times as many accounts as they have followers of their own.
This astroturf network follows a variety of accounts. The most frequently followed accounts are @RanaSarkar, @AAldekhayel, and @thouse_opinions (the latter of which is marked "China state-affiliated media" by Twitter). @ElectionWiz is the 24th most-followed account.
Read 6 tweets
6 Sep
It's #LaborDay weekend, and a botnet with stolen profile pics is retweeting various giveaway tweets and pretending to be from Michigan.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This botnet consists of 11 accounts created in early 2021. All follow far more accounts than they are followed by, and ll but one have their profile location set to somewhere in Michigan (@JacobMassengil's location is simply "USA").
Each account in this botnet tweets via its own custom app with a name consisting of 30 random letters and digits (e.g., @CarlaFreemly tweets via "LcOkMRRPjRblxHlQPo8OnwltoYXFWg"). Most also have older tweets sent via apps that were subsequently removed (the erased******* apps).
Read 5 tweets
4 Sep
Meet @jessica05181, a Twitter account with 32K followers that ostensibly belongs to a @Guardian reporter by the name of "Jessica Claire". As is often the case, things are not as they seem.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
A Google search of the Guardian's website for "Jessica Claire" turns up no articles written by anyone named "Jessica Claire", and although @jessica05181 has shared 111 @Guardian articles on Twitter, none of the authors have names remotely similar to "Jessica Claire".
As it turns out, @jessica05181 (permanent ID 1036130530666983425), wasn't always named @jessica05181. Previous names include @Adrian84474494 (which may be its original handle) and @thrawedmclag, and at least one early reply refers to it as "Adrian".
Read 7 tweets
1 Sep
It's a great day for a thread on some interesting aspects of the tweets and followers of @Ravagiing (permanent ID 2191704602), the right-wing Twitter account featured in a recent @BuzzFeedNews investigation.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
buzzfeednews.com/article/kenben…
Although @Ravagiing is presently a right-wing Twitter account that tweets in English, it wasn't always so. Back in early 2014, it tweeted almost exclusively in Arabic. It appears to have gone silent in late April 2014 and woke back up in April 2018 as an English-language account.
Back in 2014 when it tweeted in Arabic, @Ravagiing was 100% automated, tweeting around the clock via a custom app. Most of the automated Arabic content looks like Quran verses.
Read 11 tweets
29 Aug
Spam networks tweeting propaganda about Xinjiang have been a recurring thing for the past year or so. Here's one such network that appears to be trying to get specific bloggers and journalists to notice specific Xinjiang-related YouTube videos.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This particular network consists of 354 accounts created between July 2019 and August 2021. Hilariously, the operators of the network on multiple occasions created multiple accounts in a row with the same name (e.g. @cumberland_ted and @ted_cumberland, created 4 minutes apart).
This network's content is repetitive, and mostly consists of articles and videos related to Xinjiang (both feel-good stories and denial of human rights abuses). Most of the repetitive tweets have at least two accounts tagged in them, generally bloggers and media accounts.
Read 6 tweets
28 Aug
How did these six seemingly unrelated tweets end up with thousands of likes but few or no retweets? Are the likes coming from a large astroturf botnet created over the last month? (Spoiler: yup.) #FridayAstroturf

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This botnet consists of (at least) 13870 accounts with lowercase display names created between July 29th and August 26th, 2021. None has tweeted as of yet, but all follow dozens or hundreds of accounts and most have liked dozens or hundreds of tweets.
The bots in this network do two things: like tweets and follow accounts. The account whose tweets they've liked most frequently is @JuanOrlandoH, the President of Honduras. Many (not all) of the other accounts that received lots of likes from the botnet are cryptocurrency-themed.
Read 8 tweets

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