http://digitalrightsmonitor.pk/drm-...-behind-the-hashtag-arrestantipakjournalists/
It seemed that a majority of tweets (25% of the total hashtag volume) were originated from Lahore, followed by Karachi and Islamabad. In general, the hashtag seems to be originating from within Pakistan, with 76% of total hashtag volume originated locally.
Interestingly, a substantial percentage of the hashtag’s total volume was contributed by only a handful of Twitter accounts. By far, the most active contributor was @IK_Warrior, an account claiming to be the ‘team leader’ of the group ‘IK Warriors’ which announced the launch of this hashtag. Said account alone contributed a massive 1179 interactions (1179 retweets and 69 tweets) to the #ArrestAntiPakJournalists.
The hashtag started with a low of 45 tweets per hour, and in a matter of minutes reached 4508 tweets per hour. Closer observations revealed that the lifespan of the hashtag #ArrestAntiPakJournalists was less than 24 hours, which is a classic trait of artificial amplification, often through paid human-bots and social media teams.
The account claimed to be the “team leader” of a group called “Imran Khan Warriors”. “We are standing for the truth and right”, the bio of the account reads and boasts a picture of Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the leader of the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.
The observed hashtag started trending after 11:00 AM on 4th July following a tweet from Team #IK_Warriors(@Ik_Warriors) announcing the “launch” of the hashtag
“#ArrestAntiPakJournalists” and calling upon the followers to “grab the keyboard and start trending”, along with a picture of the journalists and anchorpersons alleged to be “the members of pro-India, anti-Pak media group”.
source :
DRM Investigates: Twitter Accounts Behind the Hashtag #ArrestAntiPakJournalists - Digital Rights Monitor
Digital Rights Monitor takes a deep dive into the analytics of a trending hashtag targeting journalists with extremely vile, hateful and inciteful speech, and uncovers some troubling facts. Hateful and inciteful campaigns targeting journalists, writers, and political opponents have become a...
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