Thread by @katestarbird

Recently, our lab published a paper “frame contests” within the #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter conversations on Twitter in 2016. Not surprisingly, those conversations often had a very divisive tone. faculty.washington.edu/kstarbi/Stewar… [thread]

For that work, we created a shared audience graph that demonstrated the underlying structure of those frame contests—and clearly demonstrated two “sides” of the political conversation. Echo chambers.

When Twitter released the 1st batch of accounts related to the RU-IRA troll factories, we cross-referenced those with our #BlackLivesMatter & #BlueLivesMatter data and… some of the most active & most influential accounts ON BOTH SIDES were RU-IRA trolls.
faculty.washington.edu/kstarbi/examin…

Here’s a similar graph, made from a slightly different network property (RTs rather than shared audience) that shows retweets of RU-IRA trolls (in orange). U.S. political left on the left, political right on the right.

In other words, there are paid trolls sitting side by side somewhere in St. Petersburg hate-quoting each other’s troll account, helping to shape divisive attitudes in the U.S. among actual Americans who think of the other side as a caricature of itself.

Twitter has an opportunity to help people understand what is happening to us - not just to the “other side” - but to our side/ourselves. To help us become aware of HOW we’re being manipulated. Just telling us we’ve interacted w/ one of these accounts misses the opportunity.