Thread by @marcowenjones

Thread 1/ Important update on platform manipulation. Yesterday, Twitter announced they had banned over 100 accounts that pushed the 'I stand with Putin' hashtag 🥳. However, we can prove they missed many low hanging bots
nbcnews.com/tech/internet/…
#UkraineRussianWar
#disinformation

2/ If you remember from the other day I highlighted this cluster of bots. There are approximately 149 accounts here. These are all hacked accounts that used to belong to real people.

#UkraineUnderAttaсk
#disinformation

3/ As you can see, they are real accounts, with diverse creation dates, profiles and bios. These indicators of authenticity probably make it harder for Twitter to automatically detect them.

4/ We know they are compromised, as they are all promoting the same Arabic Twitter manipulation *ahem marketing* services. They all tweet in rapid succession, and use the same app to tweet.

5/ If we analyse the accounts I collected a few days ago, we can see which ones have been suspended since they used the 'i stand with putin' hashtag. Those in red are still live and active bot accounts, while those that are not highlighted have been suspended.
#UkraineRussianWar

6/ Exactly 50% of the network appeared to have been suspended (74). Given their similarities, and the fact they were detected as part of the same community, I can't figure out why only 50% were suspended. As @timothyjgraham discusses in this great thread

https://twitter.com/timothyjgraham/status/1500087840696586241

7 / behaviourally they are similar too, tweeting in rapid succession. To get an idea of what that looks like, look at the animation below I did on a thread around the coup by Kais Saied in #Tunisia

https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1419701837045850114

8/ So the TL;DR. Twitter have suspended over 100 accounts, but missed at least 74 whoppers promoting 'I stand with putin'. These are pretty obvious bots (automated accounts). This raises major concerns of how more sophisticated manipulation evades scrutiny. Peace!
#disinformation