It was as if millions of MAGA followers suddenly cried out in terror as millions of their Russian bot followers were suddenly silenced. I believe something wonderful has happened.
Really, what happened is Twitter shut down what (based on the amount of angst and whining from the Trumper set) appeared to have been a significant number of Twitter bot accounts. However, of course, they are jumping to the conclusion that Twitter is somehow purging the Twitterverse of all Conservative users, which according to this article from Gizmodo, couldn’t be further from the truth.
Twitter suspended thousands of accounts overnight and conservatives on the platform aren’t happy about it. Twitter has yet to make a public statement about the issue, but right-wing users believe that they’re being targeted in a mass purge of suspected Russian bot accounts.
Conservative Twitter has even started a hashtag called #TwitterLockOut to talk about the purge, with some claiming that real people (as opposed to bots) were locked out of their accounts. Gizmodo has so far been unable to confirm that any real people have had their accounts mistakenly suspended.
Everyone from well known figures of the alt-right, like neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, to people with Twitter handles like @Isa4031AMP, @DonofJustice, and @Patriotsavior seem to have been impacted by the move—at least when it comes to their follower counts.
If you want to enjoy a little Schadenfreude, and giggle inanely while feeling like our Democracy is at least a little safer this morning, check out the hashtags #TwitterLockOut and #BotsandPrayers
I’ll add any statement later on that might be forthcoming from Twitter when it becomes available.
By all means….enjoy!
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2018 · 4:53:39 PM +00:00 · Ubiquitous A
As an FYI, what first alerted me to this was that the top hashtags the Russian bots are tweeting out are the #Twitterlockout and #Twitterpurge hashtags.
Check out the Hamilton 68 tracking site, which allows you to see which stories and topics the Russian bots are pushing out. It’s a daily reminder for me to see what particular piece of news they are trying to leverage.
dashboard.securingdemocracy.org
If you’ve never heard of it, here’s something to know about who started the site (from their About section):
The Hamilton 68 dashboard is the collective research and development of Clint Watts, J.M. Berger, Andrew Weisburd and Jonathon Morgan. This team is working with the Alliance for Securing Democracy in its effort to develop strategies to secure democracies against external assault.
Q: How should this dashboard be cited?
This dashboard is a tool provided by the Hamilton 68 team and the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative housed at The German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Thanks for the heads-up, guys! Keep up the great work!
Thursday, Feb 22, 2018 · 3:30:38 PM +00:00
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Ubiquitous A
Final Update: The TwitterSafety account posted this last evening. Makes me wonder if the Parkland shootings and related Twitter trolling of the survivors might have been what set this whole thing off. Would be very interesting to see if we could get verification of that.
h/t to Paulkva, thanks!