People complain when we post links to Twitter if they can't see the posts for whatever reason, so I always add a text and viewable pic version (it also means if the tweet gets deleted, we have a record of it). There's no way I was going to be prissy enough to censor the version I added - it's a bikini pic, big deal.
A poster on Daily Kos reckons that "Aiden Benjamin" may be part of a Russian botnet (I'm skeptical of the tendency to blame everything on Russian disinformation nowadays, but disinformation from whatever source, or amplified by being retweeted/reposted by whoever, does us no favors) aiming to do exactly what you said ("to get liberals to look bad during breaking news events" ):
Heads up: Russians boosting Franken story per Hamilton 68 [Updated RE: Pro-Franken disinformation]
So it appears that Russian bots are pushing a particular narrative that Franken’s photograph was staged:
[the first "Aiden Benjamin" tweet appears here - I won't repost it yet again]
The main tweet people are quoting comes from “Aiden Benjamin” whose twitter handle is “@Feisal_Hagi.” (Tweet Archived here: archive.is/...) Checking their twitter feed, they had no real political commentary until February, they just reblogged a bunch of random sports clips. So no comments during the election, the Women’s March, etc. After that there’s some poorly-written tweets about politics, none of which attract much attention. One of which calls for firing Colbert over something I don’t remember. The account has slowly ramped up its political posts.
The avatar for this account appeared elsewhere online, and ultimately seems to have been taken from a VK (Russian Facebook) account:
http://archive.is/VbR8B
Several other Russian Language social media accounts also use this image.
The Make Adverbs Great Again networks rate Aidan Benjamin 7/10 as a Russian troll or bot. Anything about 6/10 is considered a match.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/16/1716247/-Heads-up-Russians-boosting-Franken-story-per-Hamilton-68
The Obama/Hurricane Harvey tweet "Benjamin" posted is also debunked on Snopes:
https://www.snopes.com/obama-texas-during-hurricane-harvey/
Snopes says:
We asked him whether he knew the picture of Obama was not taken in 2017 when he posted it. He has yet to respond.
= new reply since forum marked as read
