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We have discovered a new, anti-Trump Twitter botnet. By “botnet” we mean a cluster of Twitter accounts that seem to be controlled by an entity that operates them collectively. A botnet can be identified when a number of very similar Twitter accounts all tweet the same thing at the same time.
We are keeping on eye on this one and our research is ongoing.
The Botnet
This anti-Trump Twitter botnet had been attempting to follow @mikefarb1 for weeks. They are very similar to each other. Each profile picture is a young woman, and the username is a woman’s first name followed by #TheResistance. These twitter accounts all follow many popular #Resistance accounts.
They all joined Twitter in October or November 2017 and each give a state in the U.S. as their location. Many of them appear to live in Ohio.
How do we know these are bots? Besides these striking similarities in their profiles, groups of them tweet the exact same thing at the same time.
All of these very similar accounts had been retweeting tweets from popular #Resistance accounts such as Ted Lieu, Kyle Griffin, and Robert Reich. But on Feb 11, they started exclusively tweeting links to the “news” website metrixpost.com.
Earlier in February these accounts had often tweeted links to hillpress.org. Look familiar?
Both of these “news” websites appear to be Blogger sites, using the same theme. It’s probably a safe bet that whoever is behind these websites is also involved with this bot.
Since this anti-Trump Twitter botnet is currently tweeting links to metrixpost.com, it’s easy to see them in action by doing a Twitter search for that URL.
What is the point of this anti-Trump botnet?
It seems to be tweeting ANTI-Trump propaganda. This is strange. We haven’t seen this before.
Three possibilities come to mind:
> The tide has turned and the propaganda machine is going after Trump, making the Bots considerably smarter than the GOP.
> This goes hand in hand with Putin’s plan to sow dissent in our country.
> This is a set-up intended to attract anti-Trump followers and draw them in. At some point these bots will switch up their game.
Given these choices, we believe #3 is the most likely. Please do not follow or engage with these bots.
This is a developing story. Our research team is working on it and we will follow up as things unfold.
Thanks to @icklepepper for providing the screenshots that started our research.
For information on how to spot a bot, see our Bot Tutorial.
Written by Unhackthevote
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