Ecuador

Twitter released a dataset containing a network with 1,019 accounts linked to the Ecuadorian political party, PAIS Alliance. According to Twitter, the network operation predominantly amplified content ‘about President Moreno’s administration, focusing on issues concerning Ecuadorian laws on freedom of speech, government censorship, and technology’. There were also indicators of a professionalised network: over the period of the campaign, the network tweeted more on business days, and 76% of tweets occurred between 8 am and 6 pm. The network’s most retweeted accounts were the verified Twitter account of Ecuador’s communications department (@ComunicacionEc), the personal account of President Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) and the official presidential Twitter account (@Presidencia_Ec). The most popular hashtags also reflected the network’s goal of promoting the Moreno government, including #TheGovernmentOfAll, #GovernmentAgenda and #GovernmentInAction. Three of the most shared URLs were well-produced videos published by a YouTube page linked to the communications department. The videos, titled ‘the government for all’, promoted Moreno government programs and state visits. However, the network didn’t seem to have helped dramatically boost the videos’ views—none had surpassed 300 views as of 2 June 2021. Other top links showed indicators of spam content and accounts. For example, at least three of the most shared URLs appeared to promote ecommerce websites.