Thread by @politicalwilli

So let’s talk about this Feinstein / Schiff letter to Twitter and Facebook about the influence of ‘Kremlin-Linked’ bot accounts who apparently made #ReleaseTheMemo trend so much the other day (starting 1/18/2018)
The link is here democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
#ReleaseTheMemo

So 1st sentence: “We seek your companies’ urgent assistance” -Worried much? Translation : “we managed to get you to send out a vague letter to 675000 twitter users about Russian accounts.. we really need your help again. We are in panic mode here: #ReleaseTheMemo is trending

Second sentence is about public reports that indicate Russian government accounts exploiting Twitter to manipulate public opinion. You reference 3 articles.

So let us delve into those articles about #ReleaseTheMemo :

Let’s look at the first by Natasha Bertrand - Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working overtime to help Devin Nunes and WikiLeaks (businessinsider.com/release-the-me… )

Natasha’s only source for Kremlin linked activity is a group called ‘Hamilton 68, a website that tracks Russian propaganda in near real time’
#ReleaseTheMemo

Let’s now look at the second article: Ken Dilanian and Mike Memoli - Right-wing demand to #ReleaseTheMemo endorsed by Russian bots, trolls
(nbcnews.com/politics/congr… )

Ken and Mike’s ONLY source for Kremlin influence is again Hamilton 68, this German Marshal Fund funded operation.
#ReleaseTheMemo

Let’s look at the 3rd article: Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay - In fight over Russia memo, Republicans have unusual ally.
( reuters.com/article/us-usa… )

Oh look: Warren and Jonathan’s ONLY source here is again this group Hamilton 68. Do we see a pattern here?

So the three sources that you use in the first reference all have the same primary source. If I was marking this as an academic paper you would get an F for sourcing, as you use 3 secondary sources all relying on ONE primary source. And that one source? Clint Watts of FPRI

The next page. You state that several twitter hashtags, including #ReleaseTheMemo calling for.... [the release of the memo] .. were born in the hours after the Committee vote. You reference a source: Fox News (🤦‍♀️) foxnews.com/transcript/201… video.foxnews.com/v/571481087900…

This was between 9 and 10 pm EST on Jan 18th 2018.. Even though they only actually state #ReleaseTheDocuments is trending, when we look at twitter prior to that #ReleaseTheMemo was the actual one trending organically at 8.11 pm with ~3500 tweets per hour

Half an hour after Foxnews’ @seanhannity show had finished it was up to 44000 tweets per hour . Maybe @saracarterdc didn’t have time to get the exact trend, maybe she was preparing for the show.

But it is entirely possible that some of @seanhannity’s 3.2million viewers got on twitter and found the hashtag that was trending and started tweeting #ReleaseTheMemo.

What portion of @seanhannity’s 3.2 million audience would be needed to tweet 44000 #ReleaseTheMemo tweets in an hr? well 44/3200 =0.01375 or 1.375%. But a lot of those 44k would be multiple tweets and RTs by the same viewers. So the % would be even smaller.

The exact point that @saracarterdc mentions ‘hashtag #releasethe documents hashtag #releasethedocuments, everywhere.’ Is at 12:50 in this advert-strip version of the show: + this is after 12 mins of @seanhannity @Jim_Jordan and @mattgaetz going on about it

If there was an advert break in that time the latest the hashtag on twitter is mentioned is at 9:20pm EST. At 9:18pm twitter has 6850 TPH (tweets per hour) at 9:21pm it is 7400 TPH and at 9:26pm it is at 14900 TPH.
By 9:32 pm 22000 TPH by 9:36 pm 23000 TPH by 10:29 it’s 44200 TPH

All those numbers 🤷‍♀️Let me make it simple for you with a graph: 👨‍🏫
This is TPH (Tweets Per Hour) vs Time in Blue and @seanhannity talking on Live TV vs time in Orange.. all about #ReleaseTheMemo

As even a seventh grader could tell you the sharp increase in rate of tweets (TPH) happens exactly at the time that @seanhannity is talking about it on liveTV to 3.2 million or so viewers..
#ReleaseTheMemo

So @SenFeinstein @RepAdamSchiff you have basically asked for an investigation of how the trend #ReleaseTheMemo got trending. here is your answer: it is the #Deplorables and #MAGA people who watch @seanhannity

That is unless you think that #RussianBots can watch TV as well🤷‍♀️🤔🤭🤫 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ #ReleaseTheMemo

Think you can now ask @twitter and @jack to step down on their #ReleaseTheMemo as this #NotARussianBot has just shown the reason why :; those deplorable @SaraCarterDC @seanhannity @mattgaetz and @Jim_Jordan on Live TV

So in summary your letter uses four secondary sources relying on one opaque group #Hamilton68 which is a bit dodgy (reminds one of the #SteeleDossier)

The other source you show @foxnews and their video neatly ties in with the trending of #ReleaseTheMemo.. 😎😎😎

Blindly even the daily beast agrees:

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