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

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

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.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg says company considered banning political ads

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.

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.

Twitter tightens bans on political ads and causes ahead of 2020 US election

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.

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.