Cheap Bots Done Quick is among the more unique free Twitter automation tools around. Unlike apps that schedule tweets, clone tweets, or link stuff, Cheap Bots Done Quick generates tweets randomly based on text the operator provides.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@ZellaQuixote We captured 48 hours worth of English tweets posted with Cheap Bots Done Quick, yielding 298642 tweets from 8235 accounts. The spikes in the chart correspond to the various tweet frequencies the app offers.
@ZellaQuixote Tweets sent via Cheap Bots Done Quick are repetitive, but exact duplicates are less common than with other tools due to the random aspect. The probability of any given word appearing remains constant, however (assuming the operator doesn't reconfigure the bot.)
@ZellaQuixote We can use this to detect groups of Cheap Bots Done Quick accounts that likely share the same configuration. Here, @acid__bot, @humanitatum, and @MikeyJRosenberg look like they're doing the same thing, while @infinite_scream is almost certainly configured differently.
@ZellaQuixote @acid__bot @humanitatum @MikeyJRosenberg @infinite_scream We scored each possible pairing of two 8235 Cheap Bots Done Quick accounts based on how similar their vocabularies are by summing the differences between the frequency with which each word shows up across the two accounts. We considered any difference less than 10% a match.
@ZellaQuixote @acid__bot @humanitatum @MikeyJRosenberg @infinite_scream These diagrams show the results. There are two large groups of bots, one tweeting Monty Python and Hitchhiker's Guide quotes along with random crap about badgers, and one tweeting "(origin)" over and over. A number of groups of 2-4 bots also turn up.
@ZellaQuixote @acid__bot @humanitatum @MikeyJRosenberg @infinite_scream The "badger" group probably isn't actually a network - it's the default configuration of Cheap Bots Done Quick, and these tweets are the result of attaching the app to a Twitter account without customizing the text.
@ZellaQuixote @acid__bot @humanitatum @MikeyJRosenberg @infinite_scream Most of the small Cheap Bots Done Quick botnets struck us as benign, but we did find a few exceptions. @Sed454, @Plasmasoft_gr, and @AdultSexyGift_ are commercial spam for a site selling mostly shoes with a side of porny ads.
@ZellaQuixote @acid__bot @humanitatum @MikeyJRosenberg @infinite_scream @Sed454 @Plasmasoft_gr @AdultSexyGift_ We also found a duo of pornbots, @AntonellaEvans1 and @KrocxMegan, using Cheap Bots Done Quick to promote a website called premiumlatinas(dot)org.
@ZellaQuixote @acid__bot @humanitatum @MikeyJRosenberg @infinite_scream @Sed454 @Plasmasoft_gr @AdultSexyGift_ @AntonellaEvans1 @KrocxMegan Finally, we found two pairs of accounts spamming follower growth tweets: @Aridiction/@Gzt0n and @FollowBulb/@follyfollyFW. We're not sure if these are actually two separate networks or variations on a theme by the same operator.
