In an attempt to criticize a protest campaign, real Twitter users amplified a bot-fueled hashtag targeting American journalist Glenn Greenwald that called for his removal from Brazil.

On June 10, 2019, Greenwald came under attack on Twitter from Brazilian accounts on the platform after the Brazilian edition of The Intercept, a news publication he co-founded, published a politically explosive report he had co-written.

The campaign against Greenwald, who has been living in Brazil for the past 14 years, called for his deportation from the country using a series of hashtags. This is yet another example of an online campaign targeting a journalist for their work, but the supportive traffic was largely driven by bots and inadvertently amplified by real users rejecting its premise.

The DFRLab examined one of the most popular hashtags targeting Greenwald: #DeportaGreenwald (“Deport Greenwald”). This hashtag reached the trending topics section on Twitter and subsequently received considerable media coverage. Both authentic tweets and automated activity ultimately contributed to the hashtag’s popularity.

This case thus demonstrates how well-intentioned actors can amplify an otherwise automation-driven campaign by criticizing it online.

Greenwald’s Story

On June 9, Greenwald and his colleagues published a story to The Intercept Brasil revealing conspiratorial conduct behind the prosecution of former President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly referred to as “Lula.”

Based on a trove of leaked messages it had acquired, The Intercept Brasil claimed that judge Sergio Moro — who had sentenced Lula to prison — had illegally collaborated with prosecutors on the corruption case against the former president, who was leading in the polls for the 2018 presidential election prior to his arrest. Moro, who currently serves as Minister of Justice in President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, subsequently denied having conspired against Lula.

Automated Amplification

The current hot nature of Brazilian politics led to an equally heated reception of Greenwald’s story, which in part took the form of hashtag campaigns. One particular hashtag, #DeportaGreenwald, received significant engagement on Twitter; among the accounts that most frequently used the hashtag, several displayed signs of automated behavior.

The account @Vnia60277936, for instance, used the hashtag 294 times in 4.5 hours. According to an analysis conducted using Sysomos, which measures engagement on Twitter, this account was the second most active in using the hashtag.

@Vnia60277936 exhibited many features associated with bot accounts. It was very active, posting an average of 577 tweets per day. The DFRLab views more than 144 tweets per day as highly suspicious. On some days, the account posted even more frequently; on June 2, it tweeted around 1,700 times, a number highly unlikely to have come from a human account.