Going through 208000 accounts boosting pro-Putin messages, and there are so many gems. Here's a Chinese speaking pro-Trump account. Created in 2017 and only has 80 tweets, most of them about #UkraineRussiaWar, whataboutism and Western hypocrisy #disinformation
Here's another gem. Uses photos of Ricardo Milos, who is apparently a Brazilian adult model. Also claims to be a feminist, muslim vegetarian, speaks Chinese, posts graphic porn videos, and promotes Putin and Trump. Of course not a troll #Ukraine️#UkraineRussiaWar
Of course Neal Caffrey is a real account. Looks totally legit...
Caroline Milton in Beijing likes pro Putin propaganda in her/his spare time, and loads of porn (I advise against clicking on his handle) #Ukraine️
This Putin super fan has +10k tweets and only 0 followers. Could be that its recovering from a recent ban, which also doesn't inspire confidence... #ukraine#UkraineWar
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🧵1/ This is an analysis of all accounts using the terms '#Ukraine' and 'bio labs'. I wanted to see which accounts were pushing this narrative the most, & which were the most influential. This is an analysis of around 20k Twitter interactions from approx 17k unique accounts
2/ Broadly speaking there are two communities. Cluster 1 are those generally promoting the existence of 'biolabs', mostly with nefarious undertones. Cluster 2 are accounts reporting on the US rejection of biolabs conspiracies, e.g. @washingtonpost
3/ Within group one there are a few tight clusters mentioning biolabs, and seemingly helping push the conspiratorial narrative including numerous Americans, such as @JackPosobiec@ChuckCallesto@bennyjohnson
Thread 1/ This is a thread about suspicious amplification and engagement farming on #Ukraine-related hashtags. I highlight a rampant violation of Twitter's Ts & Cs that makes getting valuable info on Ukraine more burdensome #disinformation#UkraineRussiaWar
2/ Firstly the tactic. Many of you will have noticed that a lot of #Ukraine hashtags are dominated by the below types of tweets. Ones that say 'RT for Russia" or "like for Ukraine" - sometimes it's reversed. They have huge engagement levels. #UkraineRussiaWar
3/ I counted around 790 unique tweets, many with likes and RTs in the hundreds and thousands. So total engagement levels in the hundreds of thousands. This explains why many of these tweets appear in the 'top' tweets on #Ukraine hashtags
Now it gets good! "Two Saudi insiders have told me that my access to Saudi Arabia is finished after the story’s publication, and that the crown prince will “never” see me again."
Thread / Major pro-Putin troll klaxon reveal! Some of you who read my thread the other day will remember one of the most influential tweets on the 'i stand with putin' hashtag. It was by @Dr_Adhira and had +12k likes & +5k RTs
2/ 'Her' tweet was unequovical support for Putin. She also called Zelensky a clown. So strong words. At the time I said her profile picture looked like a stock photo, but could not confirm it.
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.
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.
1/ Prepare for the pedophile #propaganda, it is coming out in full force (again). This blog post by @AdinaF2boys being shared by some on Twitter is stating that Putin is bombing a Biden owned villa in #Ukraine and hammering paedophile rings. She refers to Biden as 'Pedo Joe'.
2/ I came across an interesting Spanish language newsite called @DigitalSevilla . It also published a story about Zelensky releasing paedophiles to fight the Russian army. Rather than being purely batshit, it's based on a real story about soldiers imprisoned for child pornography
3/ However it was interesting that it decided to frame the news as Zelensky 'releasing paedophiles', as if it were specifically them, not just those with military experience. The newsite does have a distinctly pro-Russian slant . See below > I wonder if any Spanish journalists