Bot Sentinel, a free platform that uses AI to analyze data, claims to have found 83 accounts with a total of 187,631 followers on Twitter who regularly shared “70 percent” of the Duchess of Sussex’s reviews
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As few as 83 accounts are responsible for around 70% of the negative and hateful comments posted about Meghan Markle on Twitter, according to a report.
Bot Sentinel, a free platform that uses AI to analyze data, studied a sample of 114,000 tweets written about the Sussexes since January 2020 – when they announced their decision to step down as senior members of the royal family – to follow the negativity spread about the couple on social media.
The analysis identified 55 accounts used to disseminate negative content about the Duchess of Sussex and 28 secondary accounts that ‘amplified’ the main accounts.
The report says the 83 accounts had a total of 187,631 followers on Twitter.
But Bot Sentinel said it estimates a combined single potential reach of 17,000,000 users.
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Twitter said it was “actively investigating the information and accounts” mentioned in the report.
The company added that it would take action on any accounts that violate the rules of the social media network.
But a number of testimonials mentioned in the report responded by saying it was important to keep free speech, and others questioned the credibility of the research itself.
The Bot Sential report explained, “The accounts we monitor did not confine their hatred to Twitter. They often tweeted links to private blogs, Instagram accounts and YouTube channels mainly focused on Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
“We used Twitter accounts with no friends or followers during our research, and after looking at two hate accounts, Twitter’s algorithm began to suggest many hate accounts. On several occasions, Twitter recommended that we follow these. hate accounts
“We believe the accounts included in this report violate Twitter’s rules on platform manipulation and spam, abuse / harassment, and posting of private information.”
Some of the more recent tweets from an account using the Twitter handle @LovetheMonarchy read: “The Meghans who hate women are beautiful and could be royals themselves. So classier than Meg.”
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In another tweet, the same account asked if people knew of any “interesting” plots against Meghan Markle – before sharing a link to an “anti Meg” Facebook group, asking people to join it.
The @MeghansMole account shared a gif showing Harry and Meghan smiling at an event, with the caption: “The look of utter arrogance.”
Bot Sentinel added, “We determined that Twitter had previously suspended 40% of the main accounts, and those accounts were using tactics to avoid the suspension. Some have put a “parody” in their profiles, even if it was not a parody account.
“Others are said to use racist coded language about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex to avoid detection.
“We have also observed several accounts locking out or completely deactivating their profiles to preserve their accounts.”
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Commenting on the results, Bot Sentinel CEO Christopher Bouzy said: “There is no motive. Are people hating her? Is it racism? Are they trying to hurt? [Harry and Meghan’s] credibility? Your guess is as good as ours. “
“This campaign comes from people who know how to manipulate algorithms, manipulate Twitter, stay under the thread to avoid detection and suspension.
“This level of complexity comes from people who know how to do this stuff.”
After the report was released, some of the accounts mentioned among those who spread hate online fought back.
One person, using @BaronessBruck as the username, wrote: “Funny!
Another account, @ChangaDuchessof, retweeted the full list of accounts named in the report, saying, “Thanks for all the new people I am now. Seriously, this is cracking down on #FreedomOfSpeech.”
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The @MontecitoHouse account, also mentioned in the Bot Sentinel report, has been suspended and their tweets are no longer visible.
Another, @DunceDuchess, which is listed as a “secondary” account, has been deleted.
About six of the accounts made their profiles private – a tactic reportedly used by trolls to prevent other users from reporting their tweets.
Meghan has already opened up about the “almost insurmountable” abuse she suffered online while on maternity leave with Archie.
Because of this, she and Harry – along with their nonprofit Archewell – are not on social media at the moment.
The Duchess of Sussex once said she was the “most trolled person in the world” on a podcast to mark World Mental Health Day.
During the conversation, the former Suits actor said: “I was told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the whole world, male or female. Now, eight months into that, I was not even visible, I was in maternity leave or with a baby.
“But what could be made and produced is almost impossible to survive, it’s so big, you can’t think what that looks like, cause I don’t care if you’re 15 or 25, if the people say things about you that are not true, what it does to your mental and emotional health is so damaging. “
Harry had previously said that social media has helped create “a crisis of hate, a crisis of health and a crisis of truth.”
A Twitter spokesperson said: “Our teams are reviewing the accounts referenced in this report and have taken enforcement action, where appropriate, against accounts and content that violate Twitter rules, including potential violations. our Hateful Conduct Policy and our Coordinated Harmful Activities Policy.
“Of the 50+ accounts referenced in the report, our teams have taken action on four accounts for violations of our platform manipulation and spam policy, which means that many of these accounts are in fact managed by unique individuals. At this time, there is no evidence of widespread coordination, the use of multiple accounts by one person, or other platform manipulation tactics.
“Today, thanks to technology, 65% of the abusive content we remove is proactively presented for human review – before Twitter users even see the content – instead of relying on user reports. Twitter. Additionally, we’ve built sophisticated tools to proactively remove content that contains spam or attempts to manipulate conversation. “
The Mirror has reached out to representatives for Harry and Meghan for comment.
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