A Nigerian Man Is Actually Behind That Pro-Pete Buttigieg Twitter Account – By Jane Lytvynenko (Buzzfeed) / Feb 16 2020
The man who runs the account confirmed to BuzzFeed News that he is its genuine owner and a supporter of the South Bend mayor’s candidacy.
The man who runs the @easychinedu account — widely accused of being a sockpuppet for a Mayor Pete Buttigieg staffer — told BuzzFeed News that he is a genuine supporter and has nothing to do with the South Bend mayor’s campaign.
Yea guys I totally have the time to be running a sock puppet account from Nigeria. Find better conspiracies! 😘 https://t.co/0qbTF8Oq3m
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) February 16, 2020
Tweets falsely implying the account was actually Buttigieg campaign communications advisor Lis Smith garnered thousands of retweets and likes on Sunday despite Smith’s tongue-in-cheek denial.
The conspiracy was particularly popular because of a key tweet, which said “Team Pete. Hey. It’s Lis. It’s Phase 4. Time to leave it all on the floor. Phone bankers, we need you.”
But while some saw evidence that Smith was running the account, the truth is much more innocuous: It was a joke.
“I read the campaign email regarding Phase 4 and Lis introduced herself like that (I don’t receive campaign emails just to clarify, I just read one on twitter). I was just having a little fun with that,” Chinedu, the man who runs the account, told BuzzFeed News via a personal email address.
Continue to article: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/pete-buttigieg-campaign-sockpuppet-nigerian
