How did this tweet from #Texit supporter and lieutenant governor candidate @TheTexianDM get more retweets than likes, mostly from accounts with GAN-generated profile pics?
Answer: @TheTexianDM's tweet was retweeted by an botnet consisting of (at least) 1081 accounts created in September, October, or November 2021. All 1081 accounts tweet exclusively via the Twitter Web app, and almost all of their tweets are retweets. #astroturf
The accounts in this network mostly retweet cryptocurrency/blockchain/NFT content, but there are exceptions - gaming accounts, musicians, and political accounts turn up as well.
All 1081 accounts in this network use GAN-generate face pics as their profile pics, similar to those produced by thispersondoesnotexist.com.
GAN-generated face pics (at least so far) have the telltale trait that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are always rendered in the same position on the image. This becomes obvious when one blends the 1081 images used by the botnet together:
Other potential indicators of GAN-generated face pics include nonsensical clothing and hats made of abstract colorful blobs rather than any real material. GAN-generated "sports caps" will often have random colorful debris where the team logo would be on a real hat.
GAN-generated face pics also sometimes have trippy backgrounds that often superficially resemble buildings or outdoor scenes but that turns out to be composed of abstract shapes and blobs of varying colors when one looks more closely.
Additionally, vestigial heads near the edges of the image (sometimes referred to as "side demons") and malformed glasses or goggles that sometimes blend into the face or are unrealistically asymmetrical are also fingerprints of GAN-generated pics.
Permanent IDs for the 1081 accounts in this network, in case anyone wants them. (A few are already suspended.) pastebin.com/5TY22SC8
More information on GAN-generated pics and their use on (mostly) Twitter in this compendium o' threads:
• Community Notes successfully placed fact checks on some of the most viral false posts about the shooting
• ~42% of noted posts were subsequently deleted by their authors
• An effort to spread a misidentification of the shooter via Community Notes failed
THE BAD:
• Community Notes fact checks take several hours to show up, which doesn't help much in the initial "breaking news" phase after a violent event
• Many notes never accumulate enough ratings to determine their fate
12 questions for @TheDailyBeast regarding @JakeLahut's false April 2023 story, "How Ron DeSantis Is Taking a Page Out of Nixon’s Playbook", which (among other things) falsely portrays an AI-generated face as a "sexually graphic meme" of a real child.
@JoannaColes @TracyConnor
First, some background and a couple debunks of the false article, for those unfamiliar with the situation:
1. How did the decision to use serial fabulist Steven Jarvis as a source for this article come about?
2. Was anyone employed by or affiliated with The Daily Beast at the time the article was published aware of Steven Jarvis's extensive history of making false claims?
Meet @LovewinnLove (permanent ID 2707213009), a blue-check verified account with a GAN-generated face and a few additional odd characteristics. Despite being created in 2014, this account has no posts prior to October 2023.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
There are multiple indicators that @LovewinnLove's "face" is GAN-generated:
• unrealistic teeth (visible portion of bottom teeth is especially bizarre)
• odd texturing and seams in shirt fabric
• telltale eye positioning (more info in next post)
@LovewinnLove All unmodified StyleGAN-generated face images have the property that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the same position on each image. Blending @LovewinnLove's profile image with 99 other GAN-generated faces demonstrates this nicely.
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.