This botnet consists of 36 accounts created in July 2021. All 36 accounts have links to blogspot blogs on their profiles and GAN-generated profile pics. (GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used by thispersondoesnotexist.com to generate fake faces.)
The current generation of GAN-generated face pics (at least unmodified ones) always have the primary facial features (especially the eyes) in the same position on every image. This anomaly becomes visually obvious when the images are blended together.
These accounts have thus far posted two types of tweets:
• Tweets linking YouTube videos, sent via social media automation service @IFTTT
• Generic greetings, sent via the Twitter Web App
The YouTube videos shared by the bots were posted by YouTube accounts whose names match the names of the Twitter accounts, and which use the same GAN-generated face pics. Some (and possibly) all) of the video content is plagiarized.
In addition to the matching YouTube accounts, each Twitter account also has a corresponding Blogspot blog (linked from each account's profile). Each blog has a post claiming to be a "virtual assistant" as well as a link to the same YouTube video as the related Twitter account.
More threads on GAN-generated images and their use on social media linked in this thread:
Update: this botnet has grown in size from 36 accounts to 66 in the time since this thread was initially posted. It has also gained a new behavior: 14 of the accounts have tweeted links to articles on morningbrew(dot)com.
This network continues to grow and now consists of 87 accounts with GAN-generated profile pics. Content continues to be a mix of YouTube videos (posted by YouTube accounts with GAN avatars matching the Twitter accounts) and links to morningbrew(dot)com.
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It's New Year's Eve, and a bunch of politics enthusiasts with GAN-generated faces are enthusiastically replying to a variety of posts with similarly-worded replies. #NewYearShenaniGANs
cc: @ZellaQuixote
The politics enthusiasts are part of a spam network consisting of (at least) 575 accounts created between May and December 2023 with GAN-generated faces. Many of their handles, such as @Maairiuieinaaa and @eJooeiaAoneueer, contain long strings of vowels.
@Maairiuieinaaa @eJooeiaAoneueer All 575 of these accounts use StyleGAN-generated faces as profile images. Some of these, such as @MauMoiagaia's profile image, contain a tiny "StyleGAN 2 (Karras et al.)" watermark in the lower right corner.
It's a great day to look at a network of inauthentic accounts that post identical AI art images (with a side of good old fashioned T-shirt spam).
cc: @ZellaQuixote
This network consists of 24 X accounts. 12 of these accounts were created in the latter half of 2023 and have female avatars, while the other 12 were created in 2013 or earlier and have male avatars.
The 12 accounts with female avatars and 2023 creation dates regularly post AI-generated art images, and these image posts are quickly reposted by other accounts in the network (both female and male). The AI-generated images are often duplicated across accounts.
Meet @ImJamesMiller (permanent ID 1371651462153994242), an account with a GAN-generated face, 172K followers, and no tweets prior to two days ago. What's up with that?
cc: @ZellaQuixote
As it turns out, @ImJamesMiller wasn't always named @ImJamesMiller. In June, the account was named @/IamJimCaviezel in an apparent attempt to impersonate Sound of Freedom actor Jim Caviezel.
@ImJamesMiller Multiple prominent users appear to have accepted the fake Jim Caviezel account as legitimate, including Texas Congressman Brian Babin, right-wing influencer/ex-Game of Thrones blogger Jack Posobiec, and recently indicted ex-Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark.
It's a great day to look at a network of Bluesky spam accounts with randomized names. #SundaySpam
cc: @ZellaQuixote
This spam network consists of (at least) 401 accounts, all of which were created (or added to the Bluesky app view) in August 2023. These accounts do not follow each other; rather, each one follows a small number of popular Bluesky accounts.
The accounts in this network cycle rhythmically between posting three types of content:
• reposts
• posts containing links to news articles
• posts containing links to news articles accompanied by images
Meet @thisisorange, a Twitter account created in February 2022 with a gold "verified organization" badge, thousands of batch-created fake followers, and a couple other interesting traits.
Verified organizations on Twitter can verify affiliated accounts (employees, teams, brand names, etc), which receive blue checkmarks as well as an organization badge (help.twitter.com/en/using-twitt…). The @thisisorange account has thousands of affiliates, mostly cryptocurrency accounts.
How did this come about? The website linked on @thisisorange's profile (orange dot associates) apparently allows one to become an affiliate simply by providing a Twitter account and a cryptocurrency wallet.