Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #fishingforrobots
Most recents (4)
To close out 2020, we had @DrunkAlexJones tweet #HappyNewYear botbait tweets in various time zones, accompanied by music from artists associated with said time zones. (We largely missed the Eastern hemisphere because we started too late in the day.)
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
Here's a chart showing how much amplification, both from automated and organic accounts. "Astro-Atlantic Hypnotica from the Cape Verde Islands" was the most-retweeted video, with 15 automated and 18 total retweets.
The @DrunkAlexJones #HappyNewYear botbait tweets were retweeted by a total of 48 different automated accounts. The most frequent flier was @BlazedRTs, which retweeted all 6 tweets it was tagged in. (Some of the tag-for-retweet bots were less reliable.)
Although @kuusevana is the only bot that we've found that seeks out and retweets tweets containing #ArrestBillGates, many of the #ArrestBillGates tweets it retweets get retweeted by other automated accounts based on other criteria. #FishingForRobots
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
We found 28 automated accounts that retweeted one of the #ArrestBillGates tweets retweeted by @kuusevana over the last two months. Three are familiar right-wing retweet bots: @BWaveResist2020, @NewsLinksNet, and the ever-spamtastic @ImmoralReport.
(previous threads discussing these bots)
Trend hijacking is a technique used by a variety of Twitter accounts for a variety of purposes, and in this case the purpose appears to be to advertise dubious services that sell online reviews and social media accounts. #WednesdayWisdom
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@ZellaQuixote We decided to look closer at the networks that sell reviews and accounts. We searched for tweets containing "buy" or "for sale" and "reviews" or "accounts". After removing (a lot of) false positives, we ended up with 270 accounts, most of which are recent creations.
@ZellaQuixote The most prolific of these accounts link a variety of websites advertising a smorgasboard of products and services for sale, such as:
- Yelp, Google, Zillow, and TripAdvisor reviews both positive and negative
- Twitter, Instagram, Google, Facebook, and AOL (yes, AOL) accounts
- Yelp, Google, Zillow, and TripAdvisor reviews both positive and negative
- Twitter, Instagram, Google, Facebook, and AOL (yes, AOL) accounts
On January 13th, 2020, shortly before midnight Pacific time, our good friend @DrunkAlexJones debuted the hashtag #FishingForRobots in order to, well, fish for robots. #ThursdayThoughts #ManyFishBite
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@DrunkAlexJones @ZellaQuixote We used three different tools (Hypefury, Crowdfire, and TweetDeck) to schedule @DrunkAlexJones #FishingForRobots tweetstorms at roughly midnight PST on seven recent occasions. 91 additional accounts picked up the hashtag, 76 of which are at least mostly automated.
@DrunkAlexJones @ZellaQuixote We designed #FishingForRobots tweets to attract bots, and evolved them several times over the course of the experiment. The first set of tweets (sent via Hypefury) contained hashtags we knew from previous experience would likely result in bots retweeting or cloning the tweets.
