Share:
U.S. Generals are well respected and their opinions tend to be trusted more than the average person’s. This makes the many fake United States Generals Twitter accounts more concerning than most fake accounts. Real users who don’t know that the accounts are fake could easily be swayed by them.
This is particularly problematic because some of the fake Generals amplify political rhetoric with tweets and retweets. In other words, impostor US General accounts are trying to influence public discourse.
Propaganda and Fake United States Generals
This fake “major general” tweeted about the war in Syria. The implication is that he is there.
The same fake “major general” plagiarized this tweet from the U.S. Army Twitter account.
The fake United States Generals engage in politics from a variety of angles. Sometimes they are pro-Trump.
And sometimes they aren’t.
Periodically, the fake U.S. Generals tweet political rhetoric in their own voices.
Some of the fake Generals are not politically charged. Instead, they resemble the scammer accounts so common on Twitter.
Stealing Identities
Many of the fake United States Generals are full-blown impostors that steal the real Generals’ images for their fake accounts. Meet General Douglas Fraser.
Other fake United States Generals are more like the accounts I refer to as “model bots.” They use the pictures of a handful of men across many accounts. Here is one example:
As you may have noticed in some of the photos above, the fake U.S. Generals sometimes photo-shop real images to include a “model bot” head. Here’s another example of photo-shopping. Poorly executed, I might add.
Keep your eyes open. You never know when you’ll come across something like this in a fake account’s followers. (If you do, please report the accounts as impostors.)
It’s important to note that these fake United States Generals are not one-offs. On the contrary, there are many thousands of them. And, collectively, they are trying to influence the hearts and minds of real users when they participate in political rhetoric, .
Even when they aren’t participating in political rhetoric, the accounts are still fake. Their mere existence means they could engage in scams or political amplification at any time. All in the name of America’s Generals.
For more information on how to spot bots, see our Bot Tutorial.
Written by Virginia Murr
Updated September 3, 2019
Read More about Fake Twitter Accounts:
Twitter’s Russian Bot Hostesses
A Flood of Russian Twitter Bots with English Names
How Bad Has Twitter Follow-Back Resistance (FBR) Gotten?
Yellow Vest Twitter Bots Pushing for Violent Revolt in America
Follow us:
