These trolls are basically obviously most likely probably academics' alternative anonymous accounts and/or their "fans'" troll accounts (based on who they follow, who tweets at us, etc.) and they very obviously go through old tweets (classic necro'ing) & reply to dogpile.
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The pattern of who these trolls follow in science is so predictable. It's always the same constellation of accounts within science Twitter who have such followers. Anyway just saying so people know what we have to deal with. Think of it as a DDoS style attack.
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Anyway, just wanted to share. Do with this information anything you want.
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Olivia Guest | Ολίβια Γκεστ Retweeted Étienne Lançon
Olivia Guest | Ολίβια Γκεστ added,
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Also to be clear, these disposable troll accounts are often removed 100% off Twitter since they tend to say pretty vile stuff (and get reported) so it's very hard to keep track of them since banned accounts are completely removed.
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It's hilarious, or rather would be, if it wasn't so insidious.pic.twitter.com/MDBVpjnayq
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Oh, and my advice/plea/plan is the following if you want to help: if you see an account doing what I describe above. 1) Go through their following list to see if you can figure out which academic they emanate from/are a fan of.
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2) Tweet at that academic on the tweet that caused the dogpile. Explain to them with examples and screenshot what they are causing.
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3) Report and block the troll accounts. Blocking is important as these trolls use following lists to find more minorities to bother (you can unblock later when it's quitened down).
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Replying to @o_guest
Thanks for this thread, Olivia, really well done. A thing I’ve found really helpful for preventing dog piles is the google chrome blockchain extension. It will block all the non-mutual accounts on any “followers” or “following” page and has saved me more than once.
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