Let's take a look at the hashtag #DissolveTheUnion, one of several associated with a proposed Scottish independence vote. There have been 25316 tweets from 3476 accounts containing the hashtag in the last 10 days.
Only 31 of the 3476 accounts with #DissolveTheUnion tweets appear to be automated (based on 24/7 tweeting and/or use of automation services). However, they are responsible for 3925 of 25316 tweets (15.5%). The majority of the volume is coming from the top three accounts.
The three most prolific automated accounts with #DissolveTheUnion tweets: @IsThisAB0t, @StillYesScot, and @FAO_Scotbot are all round-the-clock retweet bots.
We've seen two of them before, btw - @IsThisAB0ta and @StillYesScot both retweeted tweets generated by @Garexit (described in more detail here).
This chart shows the daily volume for #DissolveTheUnion, categorized by whether the tweets were from an automated account and which one if so.
Retweet network for #DissolveTheUnion. Node size is proportional to the number of tweets the account retweeted rather than the number of times the account was RT'd (the network diagrams in most of our threads work this way) to more clearly show the prominence of the bot accounts.
Apparently the bots in question are enjoying this thread so much that two retweeted it and one of them followed me.
TY @Hayleeee1848 for the lead.
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