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[EmCeeGramr]

"The account was one of hundreds created by Russia's Internet Research Agency and drew 136,000 followers by tweeting divisive messages in the name of the Tennessee Republican Party. "

The account, @TEN_GOP, was enormously popular, amassing at least 136,000 followers between its creation in November 2015 and when Twitter shut it down in August, according to a snapshot of the account captured by the Internet Archive just before the account was "permanently suspended."

Some of its tweets were deliberately outrageous, the archive shows, such as one in December 2016 that claimed that unarmed black men killed by police officers deserved their fate. It also trafficked in deliberate fake news, claiming just before it was shut down that a photo of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA championship parade was actually a crowd waiting to hear Donald Trump speak.

...

@TEN_GOP gained enough support from the far right that when it was finally shut down, commentators like Reddit’s pro-Trump r/the_donald forum expressed outrage. Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump internet activist who himself has more than 213,000 Twitter followers, questioned the action when Twitter temporarily suspended the account in July.

The @TEN_GOP account was one of many created by Russia's Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked “troll farm” that devoted hundreds of thousands of dollars and nearly 100 people specifically to influencing American political sentiment. The account was first identified this week in an investigation by Russia's RBC news outlet into the troll farm's efforts to influence US politics.

That investigation documented the lengths that Russia went to in its influence campaign, including paying unsuspecting Americans to undertake activities seemingly intended to increase polarization.

The @TEN_GOP account offered a lesson in how inflammatory tweets can be used to gain followers and influence. In contrast, the actual Tennessee GOP’s Twitter account, @tngop, has only 13,400 followers, despite being the Twitter voice of the state party since 2007.

The actual Tennessee Republican Party tried unsuccessfully for months to get Twitter to shut @TEN_GOP down.

“It was in no way affiliated with our office,” Candice Dawkins, the real Tennessee Republican Party's communications director, told BuzzFeed News. “It was very misleading.”

On three separate occasions — Sept. 17, 2016, March 1, 2017, and Aug. 14, 2017 — the Tennessee GOP reported the fake account to Twitter for impersonating it, according to email correspondence that Dawkins shared with BuzzFeed News.

According to screen shots captured by the Internet Archive, the fake account did switch its Twitter profile in February from “I love God, I Love my Country” to one that admitted it wasn’t an official account: “Unofficial Twitter of Tennessee Republicans. Covering breaking news, national politics, foreign policy and more. #MAGA #2A.”

It wasn’t until sometime between Aug. 18 and Aug. 25, 2017, that Twitter closed the account.

I saw @TEN_GOP tweets a lot (usually by people mocking its bullshit or being baffled by it) during the election and into 2017. This... explains a lot.

 

[The Living Tribunal]

Fuck Russia and fuck Twitter.

Seriously, Dorsey should be held accountable for this shit.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Gotta protect that freedom of speech or something

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

Eagerly awaiting Jack's bullshit response.

 

[Jeels]

So at what point does twitter itself need to be shut down?

Could the TN GOP sue Twitter for defamation? They willingly knew.

 

[KarmaCow]

Eagerly awaiting Jack's bullshit response.

"We're trying"

 

[shnurgleton]

So at what point does twitter itself need to be shut down?

Once its stock bottoms out

 

[Maximo]

Big surprise twitter did nothing.

 

[Dartastic]

This is genuinely horrifying. Social media companies HAVE to do something to defend against these sorts of misinformation campaigns. This is scary as hell.

 

[BlackDoomShadow]

Oh my god, I knew it. That account always screamed bullshit.

Next up are all those "black Republican" accounts that use a single avatar photo of a smiling attractive black girl with no other photos or evidence of their existence and that constantly tweet inflammatory, racist garbage.

 

[Mesoian]

Eagerly awaiting Jack's bullshit response.

"They paid us."

 

[Bam Bam Baklava]

I remember seeing this account many times during a bunch of different trending events just pushing the most ignorant bullshit prominently on the first page of results.

 

[Maxim726X]

"They paid us."

This and 'free speech'.

Apparently, a stalwart defense of anything and everything.

 

[Foffy]

Dang, didn't know this account was a Russian troll, just thought it was a dumb hick American.

That's concerning.

 

[Joeytj]

While I always suspected the account wasn't the official Tennessee GOP, I just thought they were a bunch of Republican trolls in that state.

But, this explains a lot. They were always there to peddle the worst bullshit.

 

[dskillzhtown]

Twitter knew and didn't want to stop it. They love being able to tout traffic and user numbers. They don't care. Twitter especially of all the platforms have shown over and over that they just don't care. Bots, Russians, harassment, threats of violence, etc. Twitter doesn't care. How many promises have they made to clean it up?

 

[ChryZ]

Getting played all day long, suckers.