we are stock photos and we follow back all patriotsIf it weren’t for the technological miracle of reverse image search, one might erroneously conclude that the twelve Twitter accounts in the above image (@1us45, @8_27J, @HawkCoopersmith, @Jexyka_3, @JuJuSkier, @MikkiLeigh3, @WickedTcher, @BethDuttonMills, @ItsJustMeRED, @JordanFun2, @goldisez, and @x2lala) belonged to genuine Trump supporters using their own photographs as avatars. In reality, these accounts used stock photos and plagiarized images from other people’s social media pages to confer a veneer of legitimacy on a set of inauthentic influencers. Several of these accounts also periodically renamed themselves and changed personas. These accounts used growth hacking techniques such as follow trains and mutual amplification to build audiences, with varying degrees of success.as with the profile photos, the photos tweeted by these accounts are plagiarizedIn addition to using plagiarized profile photos, many of these accounts also frequently tweeted stolen images. The text of these tweets often falsely implied that the images depicted the account holder(s) engaged in or preparing for some activity (e.g., “Fireworks later tonight! Happy 4th of July!”). In many cases, the accounts retweeted one another’s stolen photo tweets. Both TinEye and Google reverse image searches were reasonably effective at finding previous instances of these photos on the internet.meet Beth, who is also John and Lisa depending on the yearSeveral of these accounts underwent periodic changes of persona wherein the account in question was renamed, the profile photo changed, and old tweets at least partially purged. An interesting example is the now-suspended @BethDuttonMills, which…Making astroturfing great again