On May 5, a Twitter account which had posted just twelve times in its lifespan tweeted a complaint about a Green Card application. Within days, the tweet had recorded over 6,000 retweets from accounts with identities as varied as Central Asian men, US-based supporters of President Donald Trump, Russian models, and Ukrainian florists.

The overwhelming majority of them appear to be fakes: automated “bot” accounts set up to amplify other people’s posts.

These bots are not particularly aggressive: the majority post a few times a day at most. Nor do they appear to play a political role. They are noteworthy for the size of the network — over 6,000 accounts — and the range of identities which the accounts within the network claim.

It is worth analyzing this network as an illustration of the sheer range and variety of identities which bot herders can adopt as they create their tools — and the ease with which it is still possible to create massive herds.

Source and tweet

The tweet in question was posted on May 5 at 08:21 UTC by an account with the alphanumeric handle @p79252228585.

The account’s screen name is “Schellenberg.” It joined Twitter on October 13, 2015. As of May 22, 2017, it had posted 27 tweets, and was following three users. Despite this very low level of activity, it had 13,228 followers.