Something strange happened on conservative Twitter on Thursday. A dozen right-wing influencers suddenly became passionate about semiconductor export policy, posting nearly identical (and often false) attacks over a 27-hour period on a bill most people have never heard of. 🧵

The posts weren't just similar in opinion. They shared the same phrases, the same metaphors, and the same false claims. 8 accounts used "win/lose the AI race." 7 used "strip Trump of power." 5 used "hands control to Congress." 3 named "Hakeem Jeffries" specifically.

Two posts even contained the same typo, writing “AL” instead of “AI” (It's a hard mistake to make when writing, but an easy mistake to miss when copy-pasting from a shared document.) Two more used the exact phrase "Democrats and their Deep State partners.”

Other themes from the posts include handing control to Congress, stripping Trump of his presidential authority, hamstringing/tying his hands, and blaming the bill on Democrats.

Approximately half of these accounts have documented or apparent ties to Influenceable, a PR firm that pays conservative influencers for undisclosed posts. We can't prove Influenceable ran this campaign, but the overlap is suggestive.

If this were paid, who could be behind it? Who benefits from killing this bill? One possibility is Nvidia, which has been lobbying hard to sell chips to China. CEO Jensen Huang met with Trump in December and publicly opposed the legislation.

On January 15, the same day these posts started appearing, White House AI Czar David Sacks quote-tweeted Wall Street Mav's post with a single word: "Correct." The administration is listening to this campaign. That's the point.

Undisclosed paid influence campaigns are ethically questionable but increasingly common on social media. A deeper problem in this particular case is that the posts are full of claims that don't survive contact with the actual bill.

Various posts point fingers at democrats, with one calling the bill "sponsored by a long list of degenerate Democrats." In reality, the bill was introduced by Republican Brian Mast. Every single cosponsor is a Republican. There are no Democrats on the bill.

Multiple posts suggested the bill would benefit China, with one saying Congress could "greenlight sales" of chips to China or help our adversaries. The bill does the opposite. It creates a mechanism for Congress to block chip exports to adversary nations.

We reached out to Nvidia, Influenceable, and every reachable account mentioned in our report. None responded. There's no smoking gun, but each of these accounts independently gaining an interest in the minutiae of semiconductor policy on the same day seems unlikely.