Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
Data Scientist/Musician/Participant in the General Confusion @trutherbotprop Resist autocracy and research/counter disinformation. I serve the realm.

Jul 7, 2018, 15 tweets

#AltAltGov: Why Fonts Where Uppercase "I" Looks Like Lowercase "L" Are Stupid

Earlier this morning, a curious response to a @LalaBova tweet from a @PalmerReport doppelganger (@PaImerReport - uses an uppercase "I" in place of a lowercase "L") crossed our radar.

This isn't the first time we've noticed an account like this in recent history. Here's an example of an interaction between @propornot and @AIt_uscis - once again, an uppercase "I" instead lowercase "L".

Interestingly, both accounts retweet fake antifa account @BevHillsAntifa7 (yes, it has 6 predecessors that have been suspended.) Are there more accounts connected to @paimerreport, @ait_uscis, and @BevHillsAntifa7 exploiting the similarity between uppercase "I" and lowercase "L"?

Searching the followers, followees, and tweets of @paimerreport, @ait_uscis, and @BevHillsAntifa7 yields 5 more so-called "parody" accounts:

@aitcybercommand
@aitstatedpt
@ait_doj
@paceiattin
@roguesnradviser (this one spells "advisor" wrong rather than replacing "L" with "I")

A number of these accounts follow one another. Here are the follow relationships between the eight accounts in question. #AltAltGov

Retweet network for the combined tweet sets of all eight impostor accounts. This includes accounts retweeted *by* the accounts but excludes accounts that retweeted the fake accounts without being retweeted by the fakes in turn.

Who do these eight fake accounts retweet most frequently? Other than one another, it's a mix of right-wing accounts (@realDonaldTrump, @DLoesch, @AmyMek) and fake antifa.

What do these accounts tweet about? The #AltAltGov accounts frequently attack the resistance. Also, they push an odd mix of standard resistance hashtags (#TheResistance, #Resist, etc) and pro-Trump hashtags (#WalkAway, #MAGA, #KAG2020).

Who follows the #AltAltGov accounts? Based on the most common hashtags in the profiles of their followers, largely pro-Trump accounts. Interestingly, #FBR is the most common resistance hashtag and others that are currently prominent (#BlueWave, #WhereAreTheChildren) are rare.

This diagram shows the schedules of all eight accounts. There are two distinct patterns: @BevHillsAntifa7 tweets steadily over the course of the day (with breaks), whereas the others tweet in brief, high-volume bursts.

The similarity in behavior between @paimerreport, @ait_uscis, @aitcybercommand, @aitstatedpt, @ait_doj, @paceiattin, and @roguesnradviser suggests that they are operated by the same individual. They also all tweet solely via the Twitter website (also true of @BevHillsAntifa7).

Additionally:

A) There are no instances of two of the accounts tweeting at the same time
B) in every case where two of the accounts tweeted less than a minute apart, one of the two accounts is @BevHillsAntifa7.

The evidence suggests that @paimerreport, @ait_uscis, @aitcybercommand, @aitstatedpt, @ait_doj, @paceiattin, and @roguesnradviser are all operated by the same entity. Also, whether or not the same person also runs @BevHillsAntifa7, there's definitely a connection.

Thanks @ZellaQuixote for the lead.

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