I follow the Chiswick hashtag on Twitter and this morning a Tweet popped up from @Sam75612312 asking me to take part in a poll about voting intentions for the area. This account was set up last month but has already made nearly 800 Tweets mainly retweets, all political most of them making the point that it is better to vote Conservative than Brexit Party if you want to leave the EU. This looks very much like a bot which the Russians have in the past used in large numbers to give higher profile on social media to messages that suit their purpose. The more retweets a post gets the more visible it becomes. This isn't a new phenomenon but what is intriguing is the localisation. Most of the tweets will have been automated but whoever is behind the account has gone to the trouble to set up one which includes Brentford, Isleworth and Chiswick. That does suggest that whoever is advising these people thinks that the Conservatives have a decent shot at Brentford and Isleworth if they can persuade people not to vote for the Brexit party. Last time I checked, nobody had responded to the poll. Best to keep it that way!

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Russian Bots Targeting Brentford and Isleworth seat?	03/11/19 09:19:00	Dan Evans
Re:Russian Bots Targeting Brentford and Isleworth seat?	03/11/19 09:25:00	Iris Hill
Re:Re:Russian Bots Targeting Brentford and Isleworth seat?	03/11/19 09:29:00	Paul Corcoran
Re:Re:Re:Russian Bots Targeting Brentford and Isleworth seat?	03/11/19 11:11:00	Francis Rowe
Re:Re:Re:Re:Russian Bots Targeting Brentford and Isleworth seat?	03/11/19 12:22:00	Iris Hill
Re:Russian Bots Targeting Brentford and Isleworth seat?	03/11/19 12:51:00	Bobbie Carnegie
Spotting a bot	04/11/19 08:20:00	Mark Evans
Re:Spotting a bot	06/11/19 07:47:00	Francis Rowe
Re:Re:Spotting a bot	06/11/19 09:04:00	Alan Clark
Reply	09/11/19 09:56:00	Kevin Howard

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