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Must-Read: Trump Nation's Secret Twitter Weapon
Eye-opening article from Politico today on the private Twitter rooms whose users often tweet and retweet pro-Trump messages constantly, spreading those messages faster than they can with hashtags alone:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/09/twitter-trump-train-maga-echo-chamber-215470
The pro-Trump rooms are an outgrowth of Twitter’s group direct message function, which was introduced with little fanfare in January 2015, just as the presidential campaign was getting underway. At that time, Twitter was considered a decidedly liberal bastion. But the platform—as well as its group direct message function—proved to be especially useful for the type of populist outsider movement spurred by Trump, whose denunciations of elitist figures and institutions were easily conveyed in no more than 140 characters.
In the months surrounding Trump’s surprise victory, mystery and conjecture shrouded his fiercely loyal social media network, a force that continues to lend a president who is highly unpopular by conventional polling metrics a unique kind of clout. Other political leaders fear his ability to shape the news cycle and flog his critics before millions of voters who may not receive news from any other source.
Many dismissed their staggering output as inflated by automated “bot” accounts run by expert computer programmers, whether foreign agents or domestic trolls. But that may be an exaggerated theory: So many months after the election, tens of thousands of tweets per day continue to emanate from a very human, grass-roots organization.
-snip-
“They were clearly organizing in some private space. It makes so much sense that it’s within Twitter,” Lotan said.
By design, the precise size and organization of the pro-Trump online network is difficult to discern. But POLITICO traced this corner of hard-right Twitter through interviews with Trump’s most fervent online boosters—a group that includes anonymous mothers in the Midwest, otherwise unremarkable Florida businessmen who amass thousands of followers through nonstop #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, and a younger cadre of meme provocateurs. As Trump’s presidency barrels forward, this network continues to evolve and even splinter. But its infrastructure, largely invisible, remains a powerful tool for the administration and its supporters to broadcast their messages and help dictate media coverage.
simultaneously.
-snip-
In the months surrounding Trump’s surprise victory, mystery and conjecture shrouded his fiercely loyal social media network, a force that continues to lend a president who is highly unpopular by conventional polling metrics a unique kind of clout. Other political leaders fear his ability to shape the news cycle and flog his critics before millions of voters who may not receive news from any other source.
Many dismissed their staggering output as inflated by automated “bot” accounts run by expert computer programmers, whether foreign agents or domestic trolls. But that may be an exaggerated theory: So many months after the election, tens of thousands of tweets per day continue to emanate from a very human, grass-roots organization.
-snip-
“They were clearly organizing in some private space. It makes so much sense that it’s within Twitter,” Lotan said.
By design, the precise size and organization of the pro-Trump online network is difficult to discern. But POLITICO traced this corner of hard-right Twitter through interviews with Trump’s most fervent online boosters—a group that includes anonymous mothers in the Midwest, otherwise unremarkable Florida businessmen who amass thousands of followers through nonstop #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, and a younger cadre of meme provocateurs. As Trump’s presidency barrels forward, this network continues to evolve and even splinter. But its infrastructure, largely invisible, remains a powerful tool for the administration and its supporters to broadcast their messages and help dictate media coverage.
simultaneously.
-snip-
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