I wonder if Trump’s Russian friends are doing this.
The #walkaway hashtag – short for “walk away from the Democratic Party” – is like a playground for bots. I clicked three of the accounts at random, and checked their first tweets. Two clearly originated as bots, once was created today to feed the hashtag. pic.twitter.com/44kBxyJVM9
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 1, 2018
Via @placeboasis, here's another fake account trying to make #WalkAway happen. 16k RTs for "Sofia Vargoros," a bot with a profile pic stolen from — I am not kidding — a book about getting rich from penny stocks. pic.twitter.com/FHWPjaABaX
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 1, 2018
The bonus from a bot-driven hashtag campaign is that you can also complain when it doesn’t trend. Why is the media covering Soros-funded liberal protests instead of Deplorable472920’s completely real story about “leaving the Democrat plantation”?
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 1, 2018
Some of the statements are verbatim pic.twitter.com/eLQYmmKdMQ
— Vote out the Grand Old Party of Feckless Cun+$ (@BoneSpurDonnie) July 1, 2018
update 7/10:
On this episode of Russian bots control the internet — are Democrats really leaving the party in disgust? No, but online trolls want you to think so https://t.co/3bqtC8rnAX
— Salon (@Salon) July 10, 2018
As Trump breezes into his "easy" meeting with Vladimir Putin, Russian bots appear to be trying to once again sow confusion and division online head of the midterm elections. https://t.co/04OI57fLG1
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 10, 2018
update 7/17
Russian bots are using #WalkAway to try to wound Democrats in the midterms https://t.co/PclaVWFfTt
— CNN (@CNN) July 17, 2018
Sad! 