“I Hired Donald Trump To Fire People Like Yovanovitch" tweet gets accounts suspended

Within 45 minutes at least 7,320 tweets (including retweets) were posted

Donald Trump is once again trending on Twitter with the phrase “I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch" making rounds after Marie Yovanovitch, former US ambassador to Ukraine testified in front of the impeachment inquiry held by House Intelligence Committee.

Trump Supporters Are Tweeting “I Hired Donald Trump To Fire People Like Yovanovitch" At A Rate Consistent With Inauthentic Activity https://t.co/r1mtaJk2CR

— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) November 15, 2019

Followers of the US President took to Twitter to express their support in the form of a coordinated tweet message.

However, the social media platform took instant action by suspending accounts that posted this status because this seemed like a coordinated behavior from puppet accounts.

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Donald Trump Jr. was amongst the first who tweeted after which the phrase spread like fire within 45 minutes, where at least 7,320 tweets (including retweets) were posted according to the analysis conducted by BuzzFeed News.

America hired @realDonaldTrump to fire people like the first three witnesses we’ve seen. Career government bureaucrats and nothing more.

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 15, 2019

It is a difficult task to separate bot activity from authentic viral posts especially when there are many supporters. Initially, Twitter didn’t find bot activity, however, later the company suspended many accounts as told by their representative to BuzzFeed News.

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According to Oxford Internet Institute’s Computational Propaganda team and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, tweeting 50-72 times a day is questionable and the anti-Yovanovitch phrase is in line with the automated services.

Despite all the evidence, it does appear that the first tweet was posted by Cari Kelemen, a pro-Trump influencer from her own authentic account.

 

I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch.

— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) November 15, 2019

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been under fire for not doing enough to prevent political parties from influencing elections through their respective platforms.

This article originally published on BuzzFeed News.