The bots described in this previous thread have been banned, but a new batch of accounts with GAN-generated face pics and screenshots of fake Elon Musk tweets has arisen to replace them. #ThisPersonDoesNotExistAndNeitherDoesThisElonMuskTweet
The new incarnation of the network consists of (at least) 128 accounts created between August 18th and October 10th 2020. All tweet exclusively via the Twitter Web App (allegedly), and all their tweets to date are either replies or retweets.
The network's replies fall into three categories:
• replies containing screenshots fake Elon Musk tweets advertising watches and random text
• replies consisting entirely of random text
• repetitive replies containing images
The screenshots of fake Elon Musk tweets hawking watches are associated with an ongoing scam involving shady websites that supposdely sell the watches in question. More details in this thread from @EJGibney:
Who does this network retweet and reply to? Mostly large verified sports and news accounts, with a few exceptions. The same is true of the accounts the bots in the network follow as well (although there's a bit more variety).
All 128 accounts in this network use GAN-generated face pics, similar to those generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com.
(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used to generate the images)
The current generation of GAN-generated face pics always have the major facial features (particularly the eyes) at the same pixel position in the image. This becomes apparent when one blends the profile images used by the botnet.
With only 128 accounts, you'd think the operators of this network would've actually looked at the AI-generated face pics they used, but some really glitchy ones nonetheless made their way into the batch.
More information on GAN-generated images (mostly fake faces) and their use on social media (mostly Twitter) in this thread of threads:
As with the previous incarnation of this botnet, these accounts are periodically deleting their media tweets (most of which are replies with the fake Elon Musk tweet screenshots).
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
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.