Twitter account claiming to belong to Tennessee GOP was run by Russian trolls

[octoberlib]

Russian internet trolls ran a popular Twitter account that claimed to belong to the Tennessee Republican Party, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.

The company took nearly a year to shut down the account, @TEN_GOP, despite repeated notifications from the state's real Republican Party pointing out that the account was fake.“It was in no way affiliated with our office,” Candice Dawkins, Tennessee Republican Party's communications director, told the news outlet. “It was very misleading.”

The actual Tennessee GOP Party reported @TEN_GOP three times — September 2016, March 2017 and August 2017 — in an attempt to have Twitter take down the fake account, BuzzFeed News reported, citing email correspondence that Dawkins provided. But their efforts proved to be unsuccessful for months.

The now "permanently suspended" account obtained at least 136,000 followers between when it was set up in November 2015 until it was shut down in August, the report highlighted, citing a snapshot of the account captured by the Internet Archive.The account had a knack for pushing incendiary content across the social media platform.In addition to peddling fake reports, it also sent out inflammatory messages such as one saying unarmed black men killed by police officers deserved to die, according to the report.

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/356066-popular-twitter-account-claiming-to-belong-to-tennessee-gop-was-run-by

[dalton99a]

1. The infestation is well planned and widespread.

[malaise]

7. They stole the elections

Truth will out

[More_Cowbell]

2. Twitter has no interest in closing accounts

Whether they're misleading, or threatening people, or doxxing (publishing information about people). Twitter makes more money when there are more accounts.

[Renew Deal]

3. Can't both things be true?

[GoCubsGo]

4. I am not at all surprised.

When pertinent people or events trend on Twitter, I often click on the hash-tag to see what's going on. They "Tennessee GOP" is almost always there with multiple comments whenever it involves The Dotard or one of his associates. Right along with some twit who goes by "Makada", "#The Persistence", and a number of others. "Melania" is trending right now. Those two are already there. It's just a matter of time before the others show up. I have little doubt that the lot of them are fakes.

[LonePirate]

5. The Russian owner(s) of that account perfected the art of mimicking ignorant, right wing America.

Granted, it does not take much to manipulate the right wing in this country. However, that account had a sophistication to it. It was nothing like the typical bot accounts. It was run by someone with a deep understanding of American politics and how to tailor messages to stoke Republican anger.

[GaryCnf]

8. I'm pretty sure

all you have do to come up with a good imitation of a Tennessee GOPer is to hit yourself in the forehead a couple of times with a ball peen hammer.

[Takket]

6. Something has to be done to force

Social media to get their houses in order.

[bathroommonkey76]

9. I remember seeing this account all over Twitter.

They seriously need to figure out a way to block all of these accounts before the next election cycle.

[octoberlib]

10. Me , too. It was being retweeted like crazy.

[sharedvalues]

11. More: retweeted by Trump Jr. Conway, etc -- Trump campaign amplified the Russians!