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@AtlanticCouncil’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Catalyzing a global network of digital forensic researchers, following conflicts in real time.

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#ElectionWatch: Midterms Social Media Highlights American Divisions

@DFRLab
11 min readOct 9, 2018

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Timeline of traffic on the phrases “VoteRed,” “RedWave2018,” and “FlipItRed,” September 19–24, 2018, from machine scan. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab)

“Blue” Series: More Posts, More Users

Automatically-generated timeline of posts on the “blue” and “red” series, showing peaks and troughs in traffic consistent with waking hours in the United States, and the relatively greater volume of “blue” tweets. Times given by the scan are in Universal Time Coordinate (UTC), four hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)
Results of machine scans of 48 hours’ worth of posts of the “blue” and “red” series, showing the total number of posts and, at the bottom of each scan, the total number of users observed. (Source: Twitter / DFRLab, via machine scan)

“Red” Series: More Posts Per User

Results of machine scans of 100,000 posts of the “blue” and “red” series, showing the most active users in the scan, and, at the bottom of each scan, the total number of users observed. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)

Tweets and Retweets

Table of Twitter activity on the four scans. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)

Alt-Right Drivers

Timeline for 100,000 posts on VoteBlue, BlueWave2018, and FlipItBlue (top image), and VoteRed, RedWave2018, and FlipIt Red (bottom image), from machine scan. Note the surge in traffic on the “red” series on September 23.. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)
Post by Dinesh D’Souza on September 23, 2018, archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @DineshDSouza)
The five most-retweeted posts in the “red” series during the scan of 100,000 posts. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)
The five most-retweeted posts in the “red” (left) and “blue” (right) series during the scan of 100,000 posts. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)

Polarized Posts

Post by John Pavolovitz on September 20, 2018, archived on October 8, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @johnpavlovitz)
Tweet by @ProudResister on September 17, 2018, archived on October 8, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @ProudResister)
Post by @OliverMcGee on September 19, 2018, archived on October 8, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @OliverMcGee)

Automated Behavior

The ten accounts which posted most actively on the “blue” and “red” series in the 48-hour scans. (Source: Twitter / @DFRLab, via machine scan)
Profile page for @jgionova as of September 24, 2018, showing the creation month and number of posts. Archived the same day. (Source: Twitter / @jgionova)
Results of Twitter search “from:jgionova,” conducted on September 24, 2018. Note that the search is set to “latest” results, and the top result is April 13, 2018. Archived the same day. (Source: Twitter / @jgionova)
Scan of @jgionova’s behavior. (Source: Twitter / Twitonomy)
Top left: Twitonomy analysis of the source of posts by @jgionova, showing the “JGio bot” reference. Bottom left: The Google alert which popped up when clicking on the “JGio bot” hyperlink, showing an email address at the server labnol.org; we have anonymized the sender. Right: Screenshot of labnol.org, showing the offer of Twitter bots. (Source: Twitonomy / Google / labnol.org)

Follow-Back Teams

Series of tweets posted by @rjoseph7777 on September 20, 2018, from machine scan. (Source: Twitter / @rjoseph7777)
Series of tweets posted by @rjoseph7777 on September 20, 2018, from machine scan. (Source: Twitter / @rjoseph7777)
Profile page for @rjoseph7777 as of September 26, 2018, showing the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived the same day. (Source: Twitter / @rjoseph7777)
Advice on how to get more followers through one specific follow-back arrangement. (Source: freedamerica.com)
Profile page for @RedPillDetox, self-described as “half human half bot;” note the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @RedPillDetox)
Profile page for @1Earth1Sea1Sky; note the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @1Earth1Sea1Sky)
Profile page for @jayoung1892; note the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @jayoung1892)
Profile page for @Golfman072, showing the very high number of accounts it follows. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @Golfman072)
Posts by @Golfman072 on September 20, 2018, from machine scan. Note the identical strings of hashtags, and the timestamps, showing the second of posting, on the right of the image. (Source: Twitter / @Golfman072)
Posts by @Golfman072 on September 26, 2018, archived the same day. Note the identical series of handles. (Source: Twitter / @Golfman072)
Profile page for @ISAACYASS; note the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @ISAACYASS)
Profile page for @Daisy49103; note the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @Daisy49103)
Profile page for @Consmover; note the number of followers and followed accounts. Archived on September 26, 2018. (Source: Twitter / @Consmover)
Post by @ISAACYASS on September 23, 2018, archived on September 26. It received 22 retweets and 35 likes. (Source: Twitter / @ISAACYASS)

Conclusions

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DFRLab
DFRLab

Published in DFRLab

@AtlanticCouncil’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Catalyzing a global network of digital forensic researchers, following conflicts in real time.

@DFRLab
@DFRLab

Written by @DFRLab

@AtlanticCouncil's Digital Forensic Research Lab. Catalyzing a global network of digital forensic researchers, following conflicts in real time.

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