Are these spammy replies from accounts with cat avatars some mysterious form of feline communication? Nope, it's another botnet, and the cats are fake (GAN-generated, similar to those produced by thiscatdoesnotexist.com).

cc: @ZellaQuixote
The reply spammers with the GAN-generated cat pics follow a bunch of other accounts with GAN-generated cat avatars, as well as GAN-generated human face pics and anime pics (and some other things), all with similar follow stats and all created in April 2021.
By recursively exploring the follow relationships of the initial group of accounts, we found 5007 accounts that we believe to be part of the botnet, created in batches between April 2nd and April 27th, 2021.
To date, only 1226 of the 5007 accounts in this network have tweeted. Almost all tweets are repetitive replies consisting of nonsensical strings of letters. They mostly reply to porn accounts (porn is also what they retweet on the rare occasions that they retweet something).
This network uses 3 different types of GAN-generated profile pic (GAN = "generative adversarial network, the AI technology used to produce the images):

• 681 human faces (thispersondoesnotexist.com)
• 660 cats (thiscatdoesnotexist.com)
• 656 anime pics (thiswaifudoesnotexist.com)
543 of the accounts in the network use the default profile pic. The remaining 2467 of the accounts use a variety of images, most of which are repeated across multiple accounts (the collage shows some examples).
The GAN-generated human face pics have the telltale trait that the major facial feature (particularly the eyes) are in the same pixel position on each image. This becomes apparent when one blends all the images together, as in this video:
For more information on detecting the various types of GAN-generated pics, here is a trio of threads:

• faces
• cats
• anime
Finally, we suspect that this is at least the third incarnation we've seen of this particular botnet. Analyses of the previous two:


Typo in one o the tweets in this thread (missing quote mark) - first sentence should read:

This network uses 3 different types of GAN-generated profile pic (GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technology used to produce the images):

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Conspirador Norteño

Conspirador Norteño Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @conspirator0

25 Apr
It's a great day to look at an incredibly repetitive pornbot network that tags its tweets with random numbers. #SundaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This botnet consists of 99 accounts created between 2010 and 2015 (mostly 2013). All have some variant of "p o r n" as their display name, and all were mostly dormant until mid-April 2021.
This pornbot network tweets prolifically via TweetDeck (223566 tweets from 99 accounts over the span of just two weeks). The majority of the accounts tweet round-the-clock, with some ceasing operation after a few hours or days of activity.
Read 8 tweets
24 Apr
Why did this @serdaribrahimke tweet objecting to Biden's acknowledgement of the #ArmenianGenocide mostly get retweeted by accounts created this month with names ending in 4 digits? #SaturdaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote
Answer: a retweet botnet, consisting of 45 accounts made between April 22nd and April 24th, 2021. All have names ending in four digits, and all (allegedly) send most of their tweets via Twitter for iPad with occasional use of Twitter for Android.
This botnet has thus far posted no original content whatsoever. All of its 3016 tweets are retweets, almost all of which are of Turkish-language content.
Read 6 tweets
23 Apr
It's a great day to look at a network of #SEO/#DigitalMarketing spam accounts with GAN-generated profile pics. #SEOShenaniGAN

(GAN = "generative adversarial network, the AI technique behind the fake faces generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com and similar tools)

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This network consists of 24 accounts created between May 2019 and December 2020. All have GAN-generated face images as their profile pics. Presently, all 24 (allegedly) tweet via the Twitter Web App.
The current generation of GAN-generated face pics have the anomaly that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the same pixel position on each image. This trait becomes easy to see when we blend the images together, as in this video:
Read 6 tweets
19 Apr
Meet @JaredLCarter (permanent ID 150677979), a "Cyber Security PhD" with a GAN-generated profile pic and a blue verification checkmark.

(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technology behind the fake face pics generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com)

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This video shows the process of blending @JaredLCarter's profile pic with 9 pictures generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com, demonstrating that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the exact same place, a fingerprint of unmodified GAN-generated face pics.
(more threads on the use of GAN-generated images and how to detect them here: )
Read 7 tweets
17 Apr
One of the accounts that @DrunkAlexJones was forced to follow by the "Round Year Fun" app is @drago1171, an account created in 2009 with a GAN-generated face pic that follows several other old accounts with GAN-generated face pics. #SaturdayShenaniGANs

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
By recursively exploring the followers/followees of these accounts, we found a network of 54 accounts created in 2009 or 2010 with GAN-generated faces. All were dormant from late 2012 until April 2021, when all 54 began tweeting via the Twitter Web App. ImageImageImageImage
Here's an animated visualization of blending all 54 profile pics together, showing the identical facial feature placement that is a fingerprint of GAN-generated pics such as those created by thispersondoesnotexist.com. (GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used.)
Read 6 tweets
17 Apr
PSA: These "fun" apps from roundyear(dot)fun ("My Twitter Family" etc) have a downside: they gain near-total control of your account and (at the very least) use it to follow other accounts without your knowledge. #FunAllYearRoundUntilYourAccountGetsCompromised

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
We had @DrunkAlexJones test some of the Round Year Fun apps. The list of permissions the apps request is extensive and encompasses pretty much every action one could possibly take with one's Twitter account. The apps produced the expected "My Twitter Crush" etc tweets. ImageImage
Less expectedly, the Round Year Fun apps caused @DrunkAlexJones to follow six accounts:: @GeoRebekah, @ai3____, @zkerravala, @firefireband, @drago1171, and @MunaTaji. The apps also muted each of the accounts they followed. Image
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!