Russian Bots Pollutes Twitter with #schumershutdown Hashtag

Think Tank ties Russian Bots to #schumershutdown and #Releasethememo just a few days after Twitter announces new process and security measures taken to avoid a repeat of the inundation of fake accounts trying to influence the 2016 Election.

Hamilton 68, a project run by the Marshall Fund think tank ties Twitter’s fake accounts to Russian bots looking to solely blame U.S. Senator Schumer for the government shutdown.

The Scope Weekly told you about the steps and newly established process taken by Twitter to prevent Russian bots and foreign powers’ attempt at influencing the American public in matters of electoral and governmental affairs. It seems that Twitter is unable to control its social network and has so far failed to curb the bots.

Fast forward – Government Shutdown

In the meantime, Day 3 of the government shutdown and the PR war raged on all weekend between the GOP and the Democratic Party, and nowhere has it been more public than on Twitter.

While Democrats are branding it the #Trumpshutdown,”  Republicans are pushing the hashtag #Schumershutdown,” after Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer. #Releasethememo also seems to be boosted by Russian hackers.

 

Russian bots are blaming the US shutdown on the Democrats
Russian bots are blaming the US shutdown on the Democrats. Image credit: The Atlas

 

Frighteningly enough in their power to bypass any process implemented by Twitter, the GOP is getting more than a little help from a friend: Russian bots. The project Hamilton 68 established by the German Marshall Fund has linked Twitter accounts who tweeted #schumershutdown more than any other hashtag to accounts “to Russia-linked influence networks,” in other words, Russian Bots are at it again with little impunity.

Notably, other hashtags helping the GOP agenda that have been linked to Russian Bots are #releasethememo and the hashtag #neverromney, which inundated Twitter as soon as the possibility speculation Mitt Romney would run to become Utah’s next senator.At the time of publishing, no Russian Bots have been tied to the Democratic Party agenda.

The question that should be on everyone’s mind is who is paying the Russians to release those bots on the Twittersphere?

– Well, it appears that Twitter still has a lot of work to do and that kind intention isn’t going to do the trick.


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