'The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.

The accounts enjoy a massive reach that is boosted by engagement algorithms, by social media companies greatly reducing or eliminating efforts to remove phony or harmful material, and by endorsements from high-profile figures such as Musk. They also can generate substantial financial rewards from Twitter and other platforms by ginning up outrage against Democrats.

Many such internet personalities identify as patriotic citizen journalists uncovering real corruption. Yet their demonstrated ability to spread misinformation unchecked while disguising their true motives worries experts with the United States in a presidential election year.

They are exploiting a long history of trust in American whistleblowers and anonymous sources, said Samuel Woolley, director of the Propaganda Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

“With these types of accounts, there’s an allure of covertness, there’s this idea that they somehow might know something that other people don’t,” he said. “They’re co-opting the language of genuine whistleblowing or democratically inclined leaking. In fact what they’re doing is antithetical to democracy.”

The claim that spread online this past week misused Social Security Administration data tracking routine requests made by states to verify the identity of individuals who registered to vote using the last four digits of their Social Security number. These requests are often made multiple times for the same individual, meaning they do not necessarily correspond one-to-one with people registering to vote.';

'The larger implication is that the cited data represents people who entered the U.S. illegally and are supposedly registering to vote with Social Security numbers they received for work authorization documents. But only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections and illegal voting by those who are not is exceedingly rare because states have processes to prevent it.

Accounts that do not disclose the identities of those behind them have thrived online for years, gaining followers for their content on politics, humor, human rights and more. People have used anonymity on social media to avoid persecution by repressive authorities or to speak freely about sensitive experiences. Many left-wing protesters adopted anonymous online identities during the Occupy Wall Street movement of the early 2010s.

The meteoric rise of a group of right-wing pseudonymous influencers who act as alternative information sources has been more recent. It’s coincided with a decline in public trust in government and media through the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

These influencers frequently spread misinformation and otherwise misleading content, often in service of the same recurring narratives such as alleged voter fraud, the “woke agenda” or Democrats supposedly encouraging a surge of people through illegal immigration to steal elections or replace whites. They often use similar content and reshare each other’s posts.

The account that posted the recent misinformation also has spread bogus information about the Israel-Hamas war, sharing a post last fall that falsely claimed to show a Palestinian “crisis actor” pretending to be seriously injured.

Since his takeover of Twitter in 2022, Musk has nurtured the rise of these accounts, frequently commenting on their posts and sharing their content. He also has protected their anonymity. In March, Twitter updated its privacy policy to ban people from exposing the identity of an anonymous user.';

'Musk also rewards high engagement with financial payouts. The Twitter user who spread the false information about new voter registrants has racked up more than 2.4 million followers since joining the platform in 2022. The user, in a post last July, reported earning more than $10,000 from Twitter ’s new creator ad revenue program. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment, which was met with an automated reply.

Tech watchdogs said that while it’s critical to maintain spaces for anonymous voices online, they shouldn’t be allowed to spread lies without accountability.

“Companies must vigorously enforce terms of service and content policies that promote election integrity and information integrity generally,” said Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The success of these accounts shows how financially savvy users have deployed the online trolling playbook to their advantage, said Dale Beran, a lecturer at Morgan State University and the author of “It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office.”

“The art of trolling is to get the other person enraged,” he said. “And we now know getting someone enraged really fuels engagement and gives you followers and so will get you paid. So now it’s sort of a business.”

Some pseudonymous accounts on Twitter have used their brands to build loyal audiences on other platforms, from Instagram to the video-sharing platform Rumble and the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. The accounts themselves — and many of their followers — publicly promote their pride in America and its founding documents.';

'It’s concerning that many Americans place their trust in these shadowy online sources without thinking critically about who is behind them or how they may want to harm the country, said Kara Alaimo, a communications professor at Farleigh Dickinson University who has written about toxicity on social media.

“We know that foreign governments including China and Russia are actively creating social media accounts designed to sow domestic discord because they think weakening our social fabric gives their countries a competitive advantage,” she said. “And they’re right.”';

'Fake news. Democrats are behind this';

'If you just listen to the glowniggers everything will be fine, eh?';

'yeeaaaa.. cause state run media is always the best way...';

'>>1285103
>>1285111
>>1285113
Ivan is seething again';

'Oh no, they had to speak to deny it.
What a shame.';

'>>1285129
Who is "they"?';

'>>1285133
Uh, state election officials. Did you read the article? It's in the first post.
Oh, and the jews. And the state election officials are probably all jews, so they're lying.';

'>>1285137
The author of the article isn't a crazy schizoid like you are tho';

'>>1285142
It's crazy not to believe in jewish conspiracy at this point.';

'>>1285149
Its more confusing that people think its some sort of conspiracy. Jews are quite open about their hatred for white people and they don't hide their powerlevels other than getting upset if someone directly names them.';

'>>1285177
Jews are white';

'>>1285182
Only when it suits their purposes, any other time they are jews with all the pity they deserve for being so unfairly treated for literally no reason.';

'Why do right wingers always pretend they're not actually pro Israel';

'>>1285189
Because then low info retards like >>1285200 would leave the party and split the conservative voting block.';

'>>1285120
Remember when Don Lemon pressed Elon Musk on the meeting where he conspired with Trump and because of it, Musk fired Lemon?
You know something's up.';

'>>1285239
Libtard fanfiction is wild';

'>>1285239
Elon had fuck-all to do with Twitter under Trump, fucktardocrat faggot.';

'>>1285283
>>1285356
Retarded conservatives thinking only in damage control';

'>>1285406
Hi again. It's time for you to commit suicide.';

'>>1285409
Why are Republicans like you coward who demand other people do their own dirty work?';

'>>1285410
Email me your physical address.';

'>>1285411
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20050';

'>>1285431
I said send it via email.';

'r3ddit is sending their finest retards to comment here.';

'>>1285471
go back there';

'>>1285476
Perhaps you're on the wrong website yourself.
4chan is a CHUDs only safe space, fuckwit.';

'>>1285479
No that's Stormfront. But I think it's funny you think that the most homosexual website is for Chuds.';

'>>1285111
Yup. They're panicking.';

'the replies in this thread, and many threads are made by trolls trolling trolls and faux outrage to "own the republicans" or vice versa, etc etc.

but inviting in politicians to "fix" the internet, whch seems to be what all these "reports" and that awful protect the children act, just educate yourself and choose what to believe or not, "fake news" spreading isn't a problem, a TRUSTED newspaper spreading fake news is a problem. both should be heavily scrutinzed by the users engaging in them, or just give the governemnt more power to keep you safe, more Patriot Act horseshit that will never go away just expand';

'>>1286615
>"fake news" spreading isn't a problem,
Who is supposed to believe this? Have you seen facebook?';

'>>1286623
trusted news spreading fake news is a problem';

'>>1286630
yes, agreed, but blogshit pretending to be news is a much bigger problem. But an even larger problem would be outrage clickbait for profit at the same time it tries to de-legitimize real news, which is what's happening on boomerbook right now.';

'>>1286633
i don't really feel like repeating what i posted 4 posts above, but it isn't a "bigger" problem, it's not even a problem, if TRUSTED news do not spread fake news than that's that, if someone reads a post here on /news/ or somewhere else, than searches the sources and makes a decision about it and finds that it is bullshit, than that is it, if someone reads a legitimate news source and their news is blogshit-tier with no clear or opaque sources than THAT is an actual problem.';

'>>1286615
It's simple I don't trust any news source and only my gut instinct.
Unvaxxed, unbowed, and unbroken.';

'>>1289658
Wrong board faggot
>>>/pol/';

'>>1286638
yes it is a huge problem whether you acknowledge that fact or not';