Horse_ebooks has been a Buzzfeed employee since 2011
Since 2011, the semi-legendary spam Twitter feed "@Horse_ebooks" has been under control of Jacob Bakkila, a Buzzfeed creative strategist who used to tweet under the handle "@agentlebrees."
Bakkila revealed his identity in an art installation called "BearStearnsBravo" at the FitzRoy Gallery on Chrystie street in New York. In a series of tweets from the Horse_ebooks account at around 10 a.m., Bakkila gave out the project's name and a phone number.
In the back room of the gallery, Bakkila (center) and two others were answering phones, reading out lines from the twitter accounts to people who called in. In the front room, two 20something men dressed as "security guards" wandered around.
Bakkila was on the phone the entire time, so I wasn't able to ask him about the project, but the accompanying text indicated that he has only had control of the account since September 14, 2011—six months before Gawker's profile of Alexei Kuznetzsov, the Russian spammer who originally created the account. (Around the time Bakkila says he obtained control of the account, @Horse_ebooks changed its method of tweeting to "from web," and a variety of conspiracy theories arose.)
Originally Horse_ebooks was a twitter spam account promoting ebooks involving horses. To avoid twitter spam filters, the account would randomly tweet words/phrases/sentences that often made no sense and are hilarious
Eventually it became a big twitter joke account
for example:
Horse ebooks @Horse_ebooks
ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE LEMON LEMON LEMON EACH DECEIVE CHERRY CHERRT CHERRT
3:45 PM - 10 Aug 2012
Horse ebooks @Horse_ebooks
KING KING KING JACK JACK JACK KHAKI KHAKI KHAKI Q QQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QUAIL QUAIL QUAIL AQUA AQUA AQUA = = XX XX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XRAY
3:42 PM - 18 May 12
