US President Donald Trump, who claims to be a devoted user of Twitter as a medium to disseminate authentic information to his followers, has retweeted a bot and is yet to realise it.
According to a report in the Newsweek on Monday, the account retweeted by Trump used the handle "@protrump45" and was run under the name Nicole Mincey.
As of Monday, the account has been suspended.
"We do not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons, " a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The bot or the fake account had tweeted an image of Trump emblazoned with the message "Trump fights for us. "
The bot tweeted the image in a reply to Trump that read "Trump working hard for the American people. . . . thanks, " followed by emojis of a heart and the US flag.
After Trump shared @protrump45's tweet, his followers began to suspect something fishy.
It was found that the "@protrump45" was a bot account created to share pro - Trump messages.
"Twitter user (@protrump45) appeared to be running an advertising campaign linked to a site selling pro - Trump merchandise, " said Eliot Higgins, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.
"The account was linked to a website, "protrump45. com", which sells merchandise associated with the Trump campaign, such as T - shirts and hoodies carrying messages like 'Make America Great Again!'
or 'Deplorable Lives Matter', " the report noted.
Though the bot changed its username to "@AlexandriaM0ra" after Trump retweeted the message, it was soon suspended by the Twitter.