We explored the followers of the accounts followed by @JaMaalBuster's batch-created followers to see if we could find more accounts that were part of the same botnet, and did not return empty-handed. #TuesdayThoughts
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1328568440391602180
We found a total of 36698 accounts, all created in July or August 2013. None of these accounts has ever tweeted or liked a tweet, and the first name and last name in their display names do not match their @-names (@Gerlach_Dianna9 is "Estella Fritsch", for example).
Who do the accounts in this botnet follow? As is often the case with bulk follow botnets, there's a lot of variety. One account, @Wolfvee11, is followed by all 200 of the accounts in our sample (and 36510 of 36698 of the bots in the network, 99.5%).
Hilariously, @Wolfvee11 (the account followed by nearly every account in this botnet) has a bunch of tweets accusing Twitter of banning its followers based on political stance. Somehow, we're skeptical that the claimed reason for the bans is accurate.
This botnet reuses profile pics prolifically, with only 1266 distinct images (including the default) between 36698 accounts. The most-frequently used non-default pic shows up on 61 different accounts.
Per Google search, the images used by this botnet have also been used repeatedly on other social media sites. Due to the frequency with which the pics appear, we're not sure where they originated, but they are presumably stolen.
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