- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Many of the MAGA influencers outed as living in countries like Nigeria and Bangladesh have since vanished from X.
The users, who had over a million followers between them, had their country of origin exposed over the weekend as part of a new X feature that now shows where accounts were created and how their owners downloaded the social platform’s app.
Four prominent accounts unmasked by the feature—DarkMAGA, MagaScope, WilliamAlbrech, and IvankaNews_—now show as being “suspended” for violating “X rules,” though it is unclear which. X’s website says it bars users who pretend to be someone they are not—something all the accounts appear to be guilty of.
The hired trolls are only one part of the problem. The other problem – perhaps the bigger problem – is that running scam / spam accounts is a legitimate occupation for people living in near-poverty. They need to put food on the table, and if they can do so by posting MAGA bullshit to get the advertising clicks, of course they’ll keep on doing that.
This is a good example of why everyone should be working to improve the living situations of everyone else in the world, and not just in their own country. It’s not like most people enjoy running scams, but if that pays the bills, fuck it, let the rich Americans sort it out.
There are literal companies you can hire. They also do it to cancel people or promote beliefs about people.
A good example is that Johnny Depp admitted he hired one against his ex during the public court stuff to make her look bad. Amber Heard. And it worked.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3VnNDMYzttcGgBNQB0BswtH/amber-heard-vs-the-internet-an-organised-smear-campaign
Companies, in this case, owned by Saudi
This stuff sounds like crackpot conspiracy theories. But it’s real. This stuff is reality now.
That last paragraph was something that struck me…I was thinking about this earlier in the day.
The great thing about disadvantaged groups is that they are easy to exploit.
This isn’t cheating. This is playing the game strictly by the rules. The whole system of checks and balances assumed good faith and professional conduct. That turned out to be a really shitty assumption.