• About Us
  • The TFT Story
  • Team
  • Write for TFT
  • Online advertisement tariff
  • Donate To Us
Sunday, August 14, 2022
  • Home
  • Editorials
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Videos
  • Citizens’ Voice
  • Lifestyle
  • Editor’s Picks
  • Good Times
  • More
    • About Us
    • Team
    • Write for TFT
    • The TFT Story
    • Donate To Us
  • Home
  • Editorials
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Videos
  • Citizens’ Voice
  • Lifestyle
  • Editor’s Picks
  • Good Times
  • More
    • About Us
    • Team
    • Write for TFT
    • The TFT Story
    • Donate To Us
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Organic Or Inorganic: What Actually Amplified ‘Imported Hukoomat Namanzoor’ Trend On Twitter?

Many social media observers are astounded by the surge in PTI’s Twitter activity in the past few weeks, and are wondering if most of this activity was organic

Omer Azhar Bhatti by Omer Azhar Bhatti
April 22, 2022
in News, Analysis
Organic Or Inorganic: What Actually Amplified ‘Imported Hukoomat Namanzoor’ Trend On Twitter?
210
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

While the PDM government was electing the new prime minister, a hashtag #imported government na manzoor, which translates to ‘imported government unacceptable’ began trending on Twitter. According to the PTI, the hashtag has been tweeted 80 million times since it began trending on April 9, 2022.

Given Pakistan’s total Twitter population is reported to be around 3.4 million accounts (with many suspended and some users owning multiple accounts), the number claimed by the PTI is astonishing. It is unreasonable to assume that the 80 million tweets come from original Twitter accounts in Pakistan. The figure reported by PTI implies that every Pakistani account would have to tweet/retweet the hashtag 23 times. This is impossible, as many representing opposing viewpoints would not tweet it.

Federal Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb claimed this trend was generated and sustained by 177 human-run accounts whereas the rest were Bots. Bots are software programmed accounts which can perform a range of functions such as tweet, message and retweet in accordance with inputs. She said a total of 924 accounts undertook this massive activity.

Talking to NayaDaur-TFT, Ramsha Jahangir, journalist who covers tech, misinformation and human rights, said, “The PML-N’s analysis refers to a different hashtag trend altogether. The PTI official teams trended a separate hashtag – there is a difference of letters between the two”.

It is imperative to point out that parameters of this analysis such as period and sample size of data in question are unknown. Yet, it has sparked a debate on whether the trend is organic.

“The trend is sustained by organic and inorganic activity but amplified by inorganic activity,” Saeed Rizvan, Communications researcher at the Ohio University told NayaDaur-TFT.

Rizvan conducted an in-depth analysis to find the percentage of original users tweeting the hashtag. He took a sample size of 100,000, out of which only 32 percent tweets were from original users. The number of tweets by original users went down to 13 percent in his next sample which contained 736,000 tweets. This means only 108,000 tweets were done by original users.

It is unreasonable to assume that the 80 million tweets come from original Twitter accounts in Pakistan. The figure reported by the PTI implies that every Pakistani account would have to tweet/retweet the hashtag 23 times. This is impossible, as many representing opposing viewpoints would not do so.

He said it is likely the percentage of original users tweeting the hashtag could go below 10 percent if sample size is increased — “There could be fake accounts but I have not analysed data to evaluate when those accounts were created.”

Rizvan told BBC Urdu that the key determinants of inorganic activity vis a vis Twitter trends were: the rate of retweets, the number of rare users and relationship between the most active users. A stronger link between key handles promoting hashtags, high average retweet rate per account and high tweets per handle are all indicators of inorganic activity.

Ramsha Jehangir added the PTI’s trend is “a mix of organic and inorganic activity. For instance, there are some accounts that posted over 1000 times (tweets + retweets + likes) under the hashtag to amplify the trend. A cluster of accounts flooding the hashtag means there was some inorganic effort.”

She also said that when big accounts post a hashtag, it gets more traffic and generates more volume. “The direct impact of so many big accounts posting the same hashtag does involve a considerable level of coordination which indicates inoganic activity”.

She further added, “Since the ‘imported-government-unacceptable’ trend has generated a volume of over 17m tweets, there is some organic activity as well, as people engaging on the topic are now using the trend.”

Ramsha Jahangir and Saeed Rizvan agreed that a large number of new accounts were created in March. Rizvan’s analysis showed that a total of 13,000 new accounts were created between April 1 and 11, 2022, averaging about 1,300 accounts a day. Whether those accounts are Bots or fake is unknown.

There has been much debate about whether this was one of the top worldwide trends. The algorithm Twitter uses to determine top trends, as Ramsha stated, is predicated on the basis of three indicators: “the average number of tweets (including retweets) per user; the percentage of retweets as a proportion of total traffic; and the proportion of traffic generated by those 50 accounts which used the given term most often.”

While the trend met Twitter’s three-pronged test for top trends on April 9, it stopped featuring as a global top trend later, despite millions of tweets. This could be because of questionable original or unoriginal activity surrounding the trend.

These three factors, she added, “indicate whether Twitter traffic was generated organically by a large number of users or pushed by a small one; whether it was driven by a high proportion of original posts or by large-scale retweeting; and whether it was driven by a small user group or a broader movement.”

Jahangir thinks it is also extremely important to consider the surrounding conversation in the region or network at the time of planning a campaign — “Sometimes hashtag with lesser posts end up on the top in the trending panel. This shows that even if the total number of tweets might be low, the hashtag was able to develop a conversation sooner than the other topics on the trends panel.”

She pointed out that ‘imported-government-unacceptable’ hashtag was among worldwide top trends on April 9.

While the trend met Twitter’s three-pronged test for top trends on April 9, it stopped featuring as a global top trend later, despite millions of tweets. This could be because of questionable original or unoriginal activity surrounding the trend. The inorganic element of the activity may have been an obstacle in the trend appearing on worldwide top trends despite millions of tweets on the daily basis.

Saeed Rizvan analysed this in a tweet, stating, “One thing is obvious that on top of genuine contributors to the hashtag, meaningful inorganic activity is going on. With tweets in millions (so far >8 million as claimed), the hashtag would have been on top of global trends. Why is this hashtag not coming to the global panel? I assume too many tweets from particular geographic locations or devices. If inorganic activity is stopped & let the trend take its organic path, it will start appearing on global trends. Consistency & originality is the key. Earlier from Pakistan, Sindh rejects the bogus domicile trend and got into the global trends”.

Also Read:

Imran Khan Announces Fight For Freedom At Its Last Stage

PM Shehbaz Reiterates Call For ‘Charter Of Economy’

Tags: Imported Government UnacceptableSocial MediaPDM governmentPakistantop trendsImran Khan Lahore JalsaImran KhantwitterPTI governmentImported GovernmentTrend On Twittertrendimported hakumat namanzoor
Previous Post

No Evidence Of ‘Foreign Conspiracy’ Against Imran: National Security Committee ‘Reaffirms’ In Latest Meeting

Next Post

Marital Rape: We Know There’s Such A Crime As Rape In Marriage

Omer Azhar Bhatti

Omer Azhar Bhatti

Next Post
Marital Rape: We Know There’s Such A Crime As Rape In Marriage

Marital Rape: We Know There’s Such A Crime As Rape In Marriage

Recent News

Defining the Post-Colonial Political Settlement: 75th Independence Anniversary of Pakistan

Defining the Post-Colonial Political Settlement: 75th Independence Anniversary of Pakistan

August 14, 2022
Dignity In Diversity: Engaging With Differences To Discover The Self

Dignity In Diversity: Engaging With Differences To Discover The Self

August 14, 2022
Imran Khan Announces Fight For Freedom At Its Last Stage

Imran Khan Announces Fight For Freedom At Its Last Stage

August 14, 2022

Twitter

Donate To Us

Subscribe
The Friday Times – Naya Daur

THE TRUTH WILL OUT


The Friday Times is Pakistan’s first independent weekly, founded in 1989. In 2021, the publication went into collaboration with digital news platform Naya Daur Media to publish under a daily cycle.


Social Media

Latest News

  • All
  • News
  • Editorials
  • Features
  • Analysis
  • Lifestyle
Defining the Post-Colonial Political Settlement: 75th Independence Anniversary of Pakistan

Defining the Post-Colonial Political Settlement: 75th Independence Anniversary of Pakistan

by Dr Danish Khan
August 14, 2022
0

On its 75th independence anniversary, Pakistan faces acute...

Dignity In Diversity: Engaging With Differences To Discover The Self

Dignity In Diversity: Engaging With Differences To Discover The Self

by Nadeem Farooq Paracha
August 14, 2022
0

In March 1987, I sat for my final...

Social Feed

  • About Us
  • The TFT Story
  • Team
  • Write for TFT
  • Online advertisement tariff
  • Donate To Us

© 2022 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Editorials
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Videos
  • Citizens’ Voice
  • Lifestyle
  • Editor’s Picks
  • Good Times
  • More
    • About Us
    • Team
    • Write for TFT
    • The TFT Story
    • Donate To Us

© 2022 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist