Posted on 04/09/2016 2:33:28 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
If you’ve spent any time on social media, particularly in the politicalsphere, chances are you’ve encountered an internet troll or two. This election cycle has been er, um… interesting. I never thought I’d long for the days the so-called Paulbots would troll my feeds lecturing me about liberty and the Constitution and Dr. Paul. At least most of those accounts were real. Alas…
Not so in 2016.
The Trumpbots, or accounts that seem to exist solely to attack those with unfavorable views of The Donald, are a special breed of vicious. I’ve learned it’s best to ignore, block, and move on. Why waste time on people, or bots rather, not interested in positive engagement, I say.
I’ve also suspected there was a concerted effort to derail conversation on social media and to attempt to fluster influencers. It all reeked of some kind of psychological web warfare. Turns out, I might have been right.
Sure, Trump pulls in around a third of the Republican primary vote now, but it’s curious that he had an overwhelming appearance of support right out of the gate. The reader may remember Trump’s campaign was busted paying individuals to attend his early rallies.
These Trumpbots are behave especially hostile towards Ted Cruz. Professor Jacobson has encountered what was likely the working of the Trump botnet on more than one occasion, “It seems that every time our Twitter account gets involuntarily looped into some endless stream of vicious anti-Cruz tweeting, typically because we’ve retweeted something pro-Cruz by a well-known person, the relentless pro-Trump protagonist is someone with very few followers, but thousands of tweets,” he said.
Yesterday, Digital Analyst, Patrick Ruffini began digging into a score of Twitter accounts that seem to explain this bizarre Trump/social media phenomena. It might also explain the consistent skew in online polling (read: Drudge Poll).
Earlier this week, Jason Taylor, blogging at Medium, explained how it’s possible to procure around 500,000 ‘aged’ Twitter accounts to create a botnet:
From my years on Twitter I’ve ran many campaigns against in what I believed to be wrong, and unjust. I have years of knowledge on how to run multiple Twitter accounts, and how to go about getting those. It’s not as simple as going out, creating an email account and then starting a Twitter account, not if you’re talking about five hundred thousand accounts. And, brand spanking new Twitter accounts won’t cut it, they get suspended to easy. You need “aged” accounts, accounts that have been steeping for at least five years.
There are many places to go on the dark web to buy Twitter accounts that also come with email addresses, that’s where Team Trump went.
These “aged” accounts are not cheap, to amass half a million of those you’re looking at some real cash, not that Trump doesn’t have it, but you need planning and someone well versed in social media to put this plan into action. I’m sure that the Trump Team new the power of Twitter long before he ever jumped in the race for President.
With these Twitter accounts, Facebook, and an email account to go along with each one; it’s no surprise he (Trump) wins every online poll. Trump has tried to control the narrative from the start, and he’s done a pretty good job of it, up until now. This was well thought out, and executed the way a general might map out a war.
These Twitter accounts are easy to spot, accounts that are dated 2009 to 2012, with few followers and a solid line of Donald Trump propaganda. There are real people running these Twitter accounts, mostly from the middle east, using VPN’s and Proxy’s to hide from United States Twitter. Erick Erickson too explored Trump’s manufactured support and the troll accounts that harass him via email or call into his radio show insisting he said something anti-Trump when Erickson wasn’t even on the air — he was on holiday.
Last Tuesday night, my radio show saw a wave of callers calling in to complain about what I was saying that very night on radio. The callers assured my call screener they were listening. The calls were coming from area codes all over the nation and they were very angry about what I had just said on the radio that very night about Trump.
I was on vacation. The guest host had been talking about local matters and had not even mentioned Trump. Hello, seminar callers. Likewise, many of the calls to my radio station demanding I be fired or disciplined for insulting Trump have come from people making statements about my radio show that clearly indicate they have not listened to the show or the station.
Similarly, whenever I get a wave of emails attacking me for things about Trump, frequently the same IP address pops up. On Twitter, the waves come from people with rarely used or new Twitter accounts that are suddenly all in for Trump — every tweet an attack against someone or Trump propaganda. More often than not, the accounts have pictures of someone other than the the person tweeting and most do not use real names.
Certainly it could be people with low social connectedness, as Michael Barone has noted, but it sure seems odd to suddenly get a a wave of #whitegenocide tweets from accounts that are just suddenly active and all in to attack people who oppose Trump.
And then there’s the ‘news’ site, pushing nothing but pro-Trump propaganda that originated from… Macedonia?
In the wake of the Wisconsin primary, for example, supporters of Donald Trump took to social media posting what appeared to be valid news reports making fraudulent claims that electronic voting machines in Wisconsin were switching from Donald Trump to Ted Cruz.
This particular fake story appears to have originated at UnitedMediaPublishing.com, and was distributed ad nauseum all over social media. But the bogus story or a variation of it was additionally cited at many other pro-Trump propaganda websites, which were also shared repeatedly on social media.
An analysis prepared by John Daniels, editor-in-chief of Tavernkeepers.com and exclusively relayed to the Examiner examined numerous “news” sites. Daniels determined that the following pro-Trump propaganda sites sprung up in only the past several months from Macedonia, a nation bordering Greece. Using the website ICANN WHOIS, Daniels was able to determine the registrar, origination date and location of these websites:
1) Usanewsflash.com 2) 365usanews.com 3) worldnewspolitics.com 4) Usapoliticsonline.com 5) worldpoliticus.com 6) USAdailypolitics.com
Articles about fake voter fraud in Wisconsin and claims that Ted Cruz will be dropping out of the presidential race (he is not) were posted at all of the above sites. They linked back to other pro-Trump sites such as thepoliticalinsider.com, thegatewaypundit.com and endingthefed.com.
Included in the slideshow above is this excerpt from Trump’s The Art of the Deal where he discusses creating a perception to close a deal:
“My leverage came from confirming an impression they were already predisposed to believe,” wrote Trump.
Smart politics or gutter-dwelling tactics? Doesn’t really matter at this point because it worked.,
“Insulting others seems to have some cathartic affect on them.”
Both sides, Trump/Cruz, say that it’s all about winning back the
White House. Most Cruz supporters say they will vote for Trump,
I know I will. On the other hand , most Trump supporters say they
will not vote for Cruz.
Something is wrong here and it’s a lot more than a
cathartic affect. The definition of liberalism is the
triumph of emotion over common sense.
It may be a little or a lot of both but perspective is
definitely in the back seat.
Sorry. No I didn’t. I realize you were quoting someone else.
I understand that shots are fired from both direction, but for cripes sakes look at the adjectives often used to describe Cruz. They’re so over the top its almost funny.
What has Trump done?
What an ignorant comment.
I don’t think Trump ever held elected office. He was not elected to serve the people. He represented no one but his company back then. This is not complex.
And if he had, and had the same decades long deceitful rotten job performance as the disciples of decline in D.C., I’d want him fired and held responsible too.
Get real.
Btw, Trump has done more for conservatism and changed the politician landscape in the historic election, than any of the corrupt lawyers turned D.C. career politician. No question about it.
“Insulting others seems to have some cathartic affect on them”
You may have missed the post where documented tweets calling Trump supporters every vulgar name under the sun and wishing death on them and calling Trump an “abortion”.
Those were high-profile tweets by the way. Guess even the famous Trump haters need catharsis, right?
“So happy to learn this...now I know how they have moved in on free republic. Meanness seems to be what they all have in common, that a pure hate for Cruz. Unreasonable.”
You’ve learned something based on a rumor,,really? You don’t require proof?
I’d like to go back about 8 mos and find the pro-Jeb supporters too.
Whatever.
“who espoused ideas I mostly agreed with. But he was such a jerk I did not want him on my side.”
So your emotions decide your vote. It’s ok. Just don’t lecture anyone else on logic. Clearly that doesn’t apply in your case.
Hey, we all have our triggers.
Exactly.
“Ya, they can’t simply be concerned Americans who’ve been economically gang banged by the disciples if deceit in D.C. They can’t be millions of Americans who’ve just been beat down by decades of loser leadership, who now suggest that decline in every direction is the new normal.
They must be Trolls! “
Remember not too long ago when Cruz campaigned on running against the “DC Cartel”? He doesn’t do that anymore. Wonder why?
I know for sure Trump is NOT a part of the DC cartel. I know for sure Trump is inspiring a lot of people to throw of the party label shackles and do the right thing for the COUNTRY!
For that I’m called every vile name in the book,,by Cruz supporters. Who btw, never EVER said thank you for all the hard work I did personally to get Cruz in the Senate.
That’s ok. I’ve learned Cruz supporters talk a good game (we’re pro out-sider,,etc) but in reality,,they are pro-establishment all the way baby. All. The. Way.
In the interest of fair disclosure Newb you moved in on FR with these mysterious meanies 7 months ago. So what’s your agenda? FR just seems to be loaded with curious newbies all of a sudden. :-)
I too once suffered from BVS, Battered Voter Syndrome but snapped out of it some years back.
Some folks can't get enough abuse and keep voting for the same do nothing political whores, over and over. They just keep going back for more abuse.
The Trump effect has nearly cured that disorder for most except the severely afflicted.
All along I thought we were trying to keep our Republic from being destroyed by the Socialist. It seems the GOP is the enemy in the eyes of most of the posters on this forum. Do any of you who hate Cruz or Trump so much, realize the Media is eating this up. This election cycle has become a feeding frenzy, goaded on by Liberals.
A lot of fake conservatives on forums are egging on the hatred and nastiness to bring about one end, the election of either Communist Sanders, or Socialist Clinton. They, along with the fake demonstrators at Trump campaigns, are trying to cause the American voter to view either Sanders or Clinton as the least objectionable choice.
Please take a long studious look at where each candidate has stood in the past, and currently stands on issues, and make you decision based upon objective observation, not emotion, brought about by those who name call and demagogue conservative candidates.
Yeah, I missed those. FR and FB represents the whole of my social media activity, and I don’t talk politics on FB. I’m talking about this site.
“loaded with curious newbies all of a sudden”
7 months is all of a sudden?? It is an election cycle!! Maybe our money’s no good to you ???
Anyone can buy accounts. The whole transaction is gray market (often paid for with Bitcoins) so tracing who bought them is difficult. A programmer can create them himself. There were plenty of Ron Paul bots and fake accounts in 2008 and 2012 but Ron Paul may not have had a clue about them. It would only take one pro-Trump programmer to create a whole army of bots, that's kind of the point of bots.
Updated Twitter estimates: 2 million of Trump’s followers are fake, another 3 million are botnet accounts (also fake, but active) 5 million bogus accounts.
Oh I C U are even newbier. :-)
Anyone who first joined in the 21st Century is a newbie. ;-)
I seldom ever comment on folks sign up dates because for the most part it’s irrelevant. But I have not failed to notice what you’re referring to. Yup.
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