During the past several days, tens of thousands of Twitter spambots — that is, bogus Twitter accounts under the control of an unknown person or persons — have begun following conservative bloggers Patrick Frey (“Patterico”), Robert Stacy McCain, Aaron Walker (“Aaron Worthing”), and Bill Hoge.
I was at about 9200 followers last night. Today, with this spam attack, I have over 30,000. @delbius @support
— Patterico (@Patterico) September 16, 2013
https://twitter.com/rsmccain/status/379573676141604866
https://twitter.com/rsmccain/status/379586214849818625
Just used Tweepi's Force Unfollow tool to get 2075 tweeps to unfollow me. http://t.co/p4zhWqC7MD
— (((WJJ Hoge))) (@wjjhoge) September 16, 2013
Just used Tweepi's Force Unfollow tool to get 1230 tweeps to unfollow me. http://t.co/p4zhWqC7MD
— (((WJJ Hoge))) (@wjjhoge) September 16, 2013
@Patterico @rsmccain @AaronWorthing Most of my 100k hits were egg avatars.
— (((WJJ Hoge))) (@wjjhoge) September 16, 2013
At least two of the four bloggers informed Twitter of the attacks:
I am not protecting my tweets, however. I have informed @delbius and @support of the spam attack. Note: Brett Kimberlin critics are targets.
— Patterico (@Patterico) September 16, 2013
@Safety I zapped 16,658 spambot followers so far today. There's still a backlog. @AaronWorthing @rsmccain @ali @Kimberlinunmask @Popehat
— (((WJJ Hoge))) (@wjjhoge) September 15, 2013
What do all four bloggers have in common? They have all been outspoken critics of convicted felon Brett Kimberlin:
@rsmccain Look at all my followers! Eat my dust, @instapundit
and @Popehat! The only way to catch up is to criticize Brett Kimberlin…— Patterico (@Patterico) September 16, 2013
@Patterico @rsmccain @AaronWorthing Once, accident. Twice, coincidence. Third time, enemy action. Fourth time, enemy campaign.
— (((WJJ Hoge))) (@wjjhoge) September 16, 2013
Kimberlin recently sued Walker, Hoge, and McCain.
Frey considers the sock puppet accounts nothing more than a minor irritant:
@rsmccain Personally, it doesn't bother me much. I find it juvenile. But I don't get email notifications. If I did… @instapundit @Popehat
— Patterico (@Patterico) September 16, 2013
At least two of the other bloggers (Walker and McCain), however, responded to the attacks by temporarily protecting their Twitter accounts, meaning that only confirmed followers were able to view their tweets. Both Walker and McCain are highly active Twitter users who have spent a lot of time building up their Twitter followings.
We hope Twitter will resolve this matter promptly.
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