4chan users pose as Jews to peddle anti-Semitic propaganda on Twitter

A group of 4chan users have taken to Twitter, impersonating Jews and promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories following a call to arms on the popular message board.

In the original post, the unknown user urged readers to “create a massive movement of fake Jewish profiles on Facebook, Twitter” and other social media platforms. “Since Jews shapeshift into whites anytime they want, we can do the same to them,” the post reads.

The author encouraged users to create these accounts to spur division and peddle conspiracy theories, specifically those about Jewish involvement in the slave trade, mass media, and our current monetary system. If the points are contested, the author says, you can label the other party an anti-semite. “Use this to your advantage.”

The post continues:

Even if Jew [sic] know of our plans, it will create in fighting as righty Jews will accuse lefty Jews of being fake profiles. This creates more division.

It’s no secret that Twitter is crawling with fake accounts. Posting something even remotely anti-Trump, for example, often gets you caught in the middle of a feeding frenzy, your words serving as chum to a throng of MAGA hat-wearing onlookers — many of which are bots.

These, like most bots, exist to further a political agenda. And while they’re loud, they’re mostly harmless, a ham-fisted attempt at yelling louder than everyone else to make a point.

These new bots, however, feel far more nefarious. Aside from merely serving as a political tool, they’re actively seeking to plant seeds of division and mistruth. If successful, they’ll further blur the line between fact and fiction, right and wrong, just as they were designed to do.

It’s not a new problem. Journalist Yair Rosenberg, of Tablet Magazine, once helped create a tool to monitor accounts exactly like this. The bot would sniff out accounts masquerading as Jews, Muslims, and other minorities and expose them in hopes that Twitter would take action.

And Twitter did take action, by deleting Rosenberg’s bot.

In fairness, Twitter has gone to war with bots on numerous occasions. In the days surrounding the 2016 election, it seemingly issued a press release every few weeks touting major victories in stamping out bot accounts.

Since then, however, the airwaves have gone mostly silent.