Protrump45 Twitter account appears to be a fake (screen grab)
Twitter suspended a number of fake accounts over the weekend that were using false names to spread pro-Trump propaganda.
In a tweet on Saturday, President Donald Trump expressed thanks to Twitter user @Protrump45, an account that posted exclusively positive memes about the president. But the woman whose name was linked to the account told Heavy that her identity was stolen and that she planned to file a police report. The victim asserted that her identity was used to sell pro-Trump merchandise.
Although “Nicole Mincey” was the name displayed on the Twitter page, it was not the name used to create the account. The real name of the victim has been withheld to protect her privacy.
The @Protrump45 account also linked to the website Protrump45.com which specialized in Trump propaganda. All of the articles on the website were posted by other Twitter users, which also turned out to be fakes.
Mashable noted that the accounts were suspected of being so-called “bots” used to spread propaganda about Trump. Russia has been accused of using similar tactics with bots during the 2016 campaign.
By Sunday night, Twitter had suspended @Protrump45 and all of the Twitter accounts associated with the Protrump45.com website. However, Trump had not removed his tweet thanking @Protrump45 by the time of publication.
Looks like the fake @protrump45 account @realDonaldTrump thanked has been suspended along with a bunch of other related fake accounts pic.twitter.com/4k26boKl2j — Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) August 7, 2017
Something's a bit odd about her bio shot. pic.twitter.com/AYJtiiUNCY — Schooley (@Rschooley) August 6, 2017
What's really cool is when the bots complain about fake news. pic.twitter.com/e0fLJUe48U — Schooley (@Rschooley) August 6, 2017
Literally dozens of these memes on this bot account. pic.twitter.com/i4k31mrrZi — Schooley (@Rschooley) August 6, 2017
Eddie_101_ on August 8th, 2017 at 11:42 UTC »
I actually asked that exact bot the other day "are you actually retarded?" but I guess really, I am the retarded one.
Halbaras on August 8th, 2017 at 08:30 UTC »
I'm sure Twitter could detect and ban most of the bots if they wanted to. Most of them are quite lazily done, and can easily be spotted by a human. However, Twitter is terrified of anyone finding out the extent of the bot problem, as their active user base will suddenly dwindle. The Trump/Russia bots are just part of the wider problem.
txdm on August 8th, 2017 at 05:39 UTC »
Twitter Audit reports nearly half his followers are fake accounts
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-twitter-followers-fake-617873