Mexican election campaign: The distorted online networks of Mexico’s election campaign | In English | EL PAÍS

José Antonio Meade was applauded for over half a minute when Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto introduced him as the candidate to succeed him at an event held inside the National Palace in November of last year.

But the applause on Twitter was fake. Hundreds of accounts almost simultaneously tweeted out @JoseAMEade until the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate’s name became a trending topic, according to Alberto Escorcia, a Mexican reporter who specializes in network analysis.