Bot Sentinel identified 55 “primary accounts” responsible for the vast majority of disparaging content against Markle. An additional 28 “secondary accounts” were flagged as existing primarily to amplify the tweets of the primary group. The handles of these 83 accounts are all listed in the report, though it doesn’t make clear who runs them.
“This campaign comes from people who know how to manipulate the algorithms, manipulate Twitter, stay under the wire to avoid detection and suspension,” Bot Sentinel CEO Christopher Bouzy told BuzzFeed News “This level of complexity comes from people who know how to do this stuff, who are paid to do this stuff.” Bouzy said that after Bot Sentinel announced it would be looking into hate tweets against Markle, he received his own onslaught of Twitter harassment, with accounts spamming his timeline, mass-reporting his account, and sharing false allegations about him and Bot Sentinel. He told BuzzFeed the harassment was unlike other harassment he or the company had faced, with this content being notably more “personal.”
Though Twitter prohibits hate speech and harassment in its guidelines, Bot Sentinel said these accounts have a way of getting around the algorithms that are meant to catch this type of content. These tactics include adding “parody” to their Twitter bio (despite not being a parody account), using coded racist language, and strategically making their profiles private. “This is a game they play with Twitter,” Bouzy told BuzzFeed News, “and they know exactly what they’re doing.”
A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that they are “actively investigating the information and accounts referenced in this report — we will take action on accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
“This campaign comes from people who know how to manipulate the algorithms, manipulate Twitter, stay under the wire to avoid detection and suspension,” Bot Sentinel CEO Christopher Bouzy told BuzzFeed News “This level of complexity comes from people who know how to do this stuff, who are paid to do this stuff.” Bouzy said that after Bot Sentinel announced it would be looking into hate tweets against Markle, he received his own onslaught of Twitter harassment, with accounts spamming his timeline, mass-reporting his account, and sharing false allegations about him and Bot Sentinel. He told BuzzFeed the harassment was unlike other harassment he or the company had faced, with this content being notably more “personal.”
Though Twitter prohibits hate speech and harassment in its guidelines, Bot Sentinel said these accounts have a way of getting around the algorithms that are meant to catch this type of content. These tactics include adding “parody” to their Twitter bio (despite not being a parody account), using coded racist language, and strategically making their profiles private. “This is a game they play with Twitter,” Bouzy told BuzzFeed News, “and they know exactly what they’re doing.”
A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that they are “actively investigating the information and accounts referenced in this report — we will take action on accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”