CRAP29 - Azerbaijan - Like UAE Last Year - Creates Fake Social Media Accounts To Pimp Its Environmental "Policies"

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2. Army of bots promotes petrostate hosting global climate talks

Army of bots promotes petrostate hosting global climate talks
At least 1,800 fake accounts on the social media platform X are praising Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, according to an analysis shared with The Washington Post.

By Maxine Joselow
October 29, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

At least 1,800 bots on the social media site X are promoting the controversial choice of Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, to host next month’s U.N. Climate Change Conference known as COP29, according to a new analysis shared exclusively with The Washington Post.

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The analysis by Marc Owen Jones, an expert on disinformation at Northwestern University in Qatar, focused on roughly 2,800 X accounts that collectively sent around 10,800 tweets, retweets and replies about the conference between Oct. 17 and Oct. 24. It found that nearly three-quarters of the accounts were created this year and roughly two-thirds had activity patterns consistent with bots.

Jones did not determine who created the bots, which are defined as automated accounts that are programmed to do specific tasks, often more quickly than a human could manage. ...The findings come as Azerbaijan seeks to use the summit to burnish its global image, despite international criticism of its alleged human rights violations and its planned expansion of production of natural gas, a top contributor to climate change.

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By Maxine Joselow
Maxine Joselow is a staff writer who covers climate change and the environment.follow on X @maxinejoselow