It's Friday, and an armada of Instagram bots named Alex with GAN-generated face pics are promoting a follower sales site. #InstaGANs

(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the technique used by thispersondoesnotexist.com etc to generate fake face pics.)

cc: @ZellaQuixote
We found 1311 Instagram accounts with GAN-generated face pics, account names beginning with "alex-", and biographies containing "GET +10000 FOLLOWERS NOW" accompanied by random emoji. (Due to Instagram's lack of a public API, this was done via the website's search future.)
As is the case with unmodified GAN-generated face pics (so far), the major facial features (especially the eyes) are in the same position on each of the 1311 images. This anomaly becomes visually apparent when the images are blended.
GAN-generated face pics have a variety of another anomalies as well, ranging from nonsensical backgrounds, clothing, jewelry, and hats to vestigial heads and random colored blobs on faces. Here are some of the more ridiculous examples from the Instagram botnet.
The bots in the network don't link to the follower sales site directly. Instead, they link to other Instagram accounts (usually @/soc.secrets.promotion) that in turn link the sales site, socsecret(dot)com. (As always, be careful when visiting dodgy sites.)
This site sells followers/likes/views/etc on a variety of social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Pinterest. No free trial is presently offered, so we did not test it.
Interestingly, socsecret(dot)com shares an IP address with a whole bunch of other sites selling very similar illicit social media services. Several of them even offer APIs, allowing their customers to automate the purchasing of followers etc.

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More from @conspirator0

10 Jun
A new pro-Bolsonaro, pro-Trump follow train hashtag has emerged: #BolsoTrumpTeam. It's being pushed by pretty much the same set of accounts that previously posted #Bolso22Trump24 follow trains, although some have renamed themselves. #PlatformManipulation

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
#BolsoTrumpTeam is (at least) the third Bolsonaro/Trump follow train hashtag pushed by this group of accounts. The accounts all switched to the new hashtag at pretty much the same time, with almost no use of #Bolso22Trump24 after June 1st, 2021. Image
This table shows the most prolific posters of #BolsoTrumpTeam follow trains. Nine of them have changed their account name since the #Bolso22Trump24 days. Image
Read 7 tweets
4 Jun
Meet @ChargoisCodie, whose profile pic is the cover of Codie Chargois's 2021 album "Tentatively Muttering", available on Amazon, iHeartRadio, and YouTube. One might infer that this is Codie Chargois's official Twitter account, but things are not as they seem.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
The Codie Chargois tracks on YouTube are all covers that have been given different names than the original songs. Two are identical - "Just Around the Way" () and "3h AM" () are the same version of "Ring of Fire". One more thing...
All of the songs allegedly recorded by "Codie Chargois" appear to have actually been recorded by 39 WEST, an Ohio country band (reverbnation.com/39west). Perhaps "Tentatively Plagiarizing" would've been a better album title than "Tentatively Muttering".
Read 11 tweets
2 Jun
Power10 retweet automation creator @JasonLSullivan_ has been excitedly promoting his new magainfo(dot)tv video site. This thread is not about that site, however. It is about another site with the same IP address: michaelsolisunus(dot)com.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
(Previous thread on the now-defunct Power10 retweet automation software, as well as reporting from Business Insider on the topic)
businessinsider.com/power10-activi…
At first glance, michaelsolisunus(dot)com looks like an empty website with placeholder "Home", "About Us", and "Contact Us" sections. What's up with that "Go to App" button in the corner?
Read 10 tweets
1 Jun
Meet @AmaralBailey, a Twitter account created in August 2014 with a default profile pic and zero tweets. In a wacky plot twist, all of @AmaralBailey's followers and followees are also accounts created on August 27th 2014 with default profile pics and no tweets.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
These accounts are part of a network of (at least) 2327 accounts with default profile pics and no tweets created on August 27th, 2014. Most have names that are first/last name combos, but there are a few outliers, such as @surprisingKathy, @gunWilliams, and @Clevelandexcite.
(Note: it's possible that this network is actually substantially larger than the 2327 accounts in our dataset. Since the accounts have no content and exploring the network takes a while, we stopped once we found a couple thousand accounts.)
Read 5 tweets
30 May
Here's an interesting account: @VishalAParmar, created in May 2021. All but two of its 688 followers were also created in May 2021, over a period of less than 12 hours. #SaturdaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote
These followers are part of a fake follower botnet created between April 30th and May 29th, 2021. This botnet consists of (at least) 20684 accounts, none of which has ever tweeted. The accounts have random-looking but more or less pronounceable names, usually in all lowercase.
Who does this botnet follow? There's a lot of variety, although most are promotional/commercial accounts of some type. Cryptocurrency/blockchain accounts are a bit of a theme.
Read 7 tweets
28 May
We've previously documented that the "Round Year Fun" apps ("My Twitter Family" etc) force you to follow other accounts without your knowledge. Interestingly, the main Round Year Fun website shares an IP address with a website that sells Twitter followers.

cc: @ZellaQuixote ImageImage
The follower sales website in question (realactivefollowers(dot)com) offers a trifecta of shady Twitter-related services: you can buy followers, likes, and even developer accounts (which enables aspiring botmakers to bypass the normal approval process, among other things). ImageImageImageImage
Realactivefollowers(dot)com also offers a free trial of 50 followers. We had @DrunkAlexJones take advantage of this offer with the goal of testing the hypothesis that the followers being sold on this website are unwitting users of the Round Year Fun apps. Image
Read 6 tweets

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