Social media war over Daniel Andrews driven by hyper-partisan and ‘fake’ accounts – study
Research finds anonymous ‘sockpuppet’ accounts stirred up the battle between #IStandWithDan and #DictatorDan
The #IStandWithDan versus #DictatorDan social media war waged during Victoria’s second coronavirus wave was driven by a small, hyper-partisan core of Twitter users, and amplified by “fake” accounts, a new study has found.
As the focus shifted towards the premier’s decision to impose strict stage four restrictions in response to the crisis, the emergence of pro- and anti-Andrews hashtags became synonymous with the divisions that were roiling Victoria. The #DictatorDan moniker became widely used in media coverage, particularly among local right-leaning outlets, though it even appeared in the Washington Post.
Read the original article at The Guardian