How Twitter remains complicit ? allowing nationalist-conservatives to game their platform
Enter @ChatByCC
Earlier this afternoon, in a piece from The Daily Dot, Zachary Petrizzo reports that Jacob Wohl ?is supposedly operating a pro-Trump Twitter account, @ChatByCC.?
The @ChatByCC account ? praised by President Trump at 9:33a this morning ? was suspended just a few hours later, after an inquiry from The Daily Dot:
At the time of suspension, the account reflected having 317K Followers:
Background Information
I am very familiar with the @ChatByCC account.
Below, you can see my attempt at bringing to the attention of Yoel Roth, Twitter?s Head of Site Integrity and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter?s Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead (back in Nov 2018):
Accounts include: @HelloTeamTrump, @KazmierskiR, @BlissTabitha, @ChatByCC (SUSPENDED), @DrSueDVM, @DMashak, @Mike_Beacham, @ChristieC733, @JBaker31826004, @PJStrikeForce, @WeSupport45 (SUSPENDED), @Trump_World, @HispanicsTrump
Here?s the complete thread (since my Twitter account remains suspended, unfortunately images aren?t rendering!):
?CC? wasn?t too pleased with being called out more than a year ago:
Neither was Pepe the Frog:
Worth noting that the account (@concerned_chi) has since upgraded the frog to an American flag:
Here?s another attempt at bringing ?CC? to the attention of Yoel Roth, Twitter?s Head of Site Integrity (from Dec 1st, 2018):
Manufactured Outrage
Below are examples of (inauthentic) accounts sharing their outrage that ?CC? has been suspended, and where said tweets are being amplified (retweeted) mainly by inauthentic accounts:
Tweets from @SouthBelle2020, @13hammers, @MrJones_tm, @unscriptedmike
Note how the profiles of 3 of the 4 accounts (@13hammers, @MrJones_tm, @unscriptedmike) lack a ?You might like? section:
As was covered last week, profiles lacking ?You might like? sections generally are indicative of accounts associated with inauthentic activity.
OK, So What?s Your Point?
The @ChatByCC account should have been suspended a long time ago.
Despite being brought to the attention of Twitter by several researchers (myself included!) over the years, Twitter opted to ignore such feedback. Moreover, ?CC? was part of a much larger network of MAGA-focused accounts that continue to engage in activity that violates Twitter Rules. Twitter is yet to address the (substantial) ancillary network, instead allowing nationalist-conservatives to weaponize their platform.
Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey wants to decentralize accountability (it seems!), last week announcing that Twitter will be funding a (small) team to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media:
I, for one, am not holding my breath..
Geoff Golberg is an NYC-based researcher (and entrepreneur) who is fascinated by graph visualization/network analysis ? more specifically, when applied to social networks and blockchain activity. His experience spans structured finance, ad tech, and digital marketing/customer acquisition, both at startups and public companies.
Geoff is the Founder/CEO/Janitor of Social Forensics, where he spends (far too much of) his time developing techniques and building tools to identify social media manipulation (of various flavors!).
Read about Geoff?s war with Twitter here!
