'OPERATION DIVIDE THE LEFT': Recent assault on Democratic candidates traced to 200 suspect accounts

[Soph0571]

A team of analysts at Politico found a small group of 200 accounts—specifically these guys—drove a “disproportionate” amount of racist and negative disinformation, over a 30-day period, targeting four Democratic presidential candidates for 2020: Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke. In fact, between 2-15% of all Twitter mentions concerning these candidates over that timeframe originated from this small group.

This is the same group that generated or were mentioned in over 140 million tweets in the run-up to the 2018 midterms. Their focus then was on non-existent “voter fraud,” and the false claim that millions of undocumented immigrants vote in elections. The researchers said this group uses highly coordinated techniques to go viral, including funneling their tweets to other suspicious, knowingly automated accounts; the group also deployed sophisticated tactics that seem to easily bypass current detection methods.
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So that racist, sexist tweet you saw smearing Kamala Harris over her former relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown? That supposed “blackface” doll in Warren’s kitchen? That claim that O’Rourke left a racist phone message?

You can thank these guys.

[link:https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/22/1836933/--OPERATION-DIVIDE-THE-LEFT-That-recent-assault-on-our-candidates-traced-to-200-suspect-accounts?utm_campaign=trending|

Knowing about it and pointing it out ALL the time will help mitigate the effects of it, at least just a little bit.

[DSV]

1. An important story! Thanks for posting it!