Thread by @conspirator0

We're only 15 days into 2021, and someone has already spun up a network of "news" accounts with GAN-generated face pics (similar to the output of thispersondoesnotexist.com). Most of the "authors" at the sites they promote also have GAN pics. #FridayShenaniGANs

cc: @ZellaQuixote

We found a network of 11 accounts, all created on January 1st 2021 or later. Each account has a GAN-generated profile pic and tweets links to the "news" site listed in its profile (the sites are mostly cryptocurrency-themed), as well as retweeting other members of the network.

Most of these accounts' tweets are automated via "RSS Ground", and contain links to the "news" sites they promote. The automated tweets are sent on similar schedules, with occasional tweets via the Twitter website (mostly retweets of other accounts in the network).

Each of the 11 accounts in this botnet retweets and follows multiple other members of the network. @AllTheTopNews1 is the most connected account in the network, with retweet or follow relationships with all of the other bots except for @DailyEastern.

This botnet promotes nine different "news" sites, six of which have "authors" with GAN-generated pics (four "authors" per site, for a total of 24). Some of the "authors" have the same pic as the Twitter account promoting the site they supposedly write for.

The alleged biographies of the "authors" of these news sites are hilariously repetitive, with most of the sites apparently employing a writer who is also an industrialist with a pet cat who enjoys playing video games and oversleeping (generally by exactly one hour).

Here's the result of blending all the face pics together (both the profile pics of the Twitter bots and the pics of the supposed "authors" from the websites). As is the case with all unmodified StyleGAN face pics, the major facial features are in the same location on each image.