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Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
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6 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
I was honored to advise @KaulAyushman on the #TekFog investigation

At FB, I knew that I was only finding the low-hanging fruit: those too stupid to hide. Smarter than their incompetent MP, the main BJP IT cells were only caught via being exposed by one of their own
FB India leadership first told me that the BJP was the primary users of IT cells in 2018

When I caught a pro-AAP IT cell in Delhi's 2020 elections, policy leaders assumed they'd decided to imitate the BJP's methods. (The LS has the docs)

FB knew - they just didn't care to look.
The most shocking finding for me was the confirmed ability of the BJP to hijack WhatsApp accounts to falsely message contacts

Imagine living under a government that hijacks your phone to send party-line propaganda impersonating you to friends and family. This is reality in India
India is the world's largest democracy. I deeply hope it remains the world's largest democracy.

But the Indian government seems increasingly inclined to learn from the neighboring PRC's 五毛党. India's IT cells are to public discourse as ballot box stuffing is to fair elections.

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More from @szhang_ds

Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
5 Jan
The fundamental flaw with social media extremist policy is that violent movements are only banned when they receive attention & public backlash.

This means that - on Twitter/Reddit/FB/etc., dangerous extremists are only banned after they've gained support to persist off-platform
The greatest value of social media to movements like QAnon, Boogaloo, white nationalists, etc. is in the growth phase.

The time to act is while they're small and ridiculed, before anyone has heard of them in the first place. But companies face no pressure at that point.
Conspiracies have always existed.

60 years ago, conspiracists argued that fluoride was a Communist mind control plot. But no reputable publication would give them the time of day.

Social media has broken down those old gatekeepers. We're still grappling with the consequences.
Read 4 tweets
Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
11 Jun 21
In 11/2018, I helped investigate America Progress Now (APN), a shady group running Green Party ads in swing districts. Other employees quickly determined that the group was run by US conservative operatives.

FB failed to act before the election. (1/15)
theguardian.com/technology/202…
The episode attracted the attention of the press at the time. My role was minor; others did the real work.

FB did finally act after the election... to warn the perpetrators their duplicate accounts would be disabled. Mission accomplished, we said. (2/15)
propublica.org/article/a-myst…
Although the world had no idea, FB knew the page was controlled by three people. They were using duplicate accounts - e.g. @duncan_colton created a "CG Duncan" account.

As they sent FB their personal ID for ad verification, this apparent obfuscation was not effective. (3/15)
Read 16 tweets
Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
9 Jun 21
Many security experts are familiar with compromised accounts - when someone unauthorized obtains account access.

A major issue at FB/IG was self-compromised accounts: People willingly hand over account access to others, as I write in @restofworld (1/7)

restofworld.org/2021/sophie-zh…
Why would someone choose to give a nefarious third party access to their account?

Services known as "autolikers" are popular in much of the world. They offer the user free automatic likes. All you have to do is hand over your access token - letting them login as yourself (2/7)
This behavior is perhaps the main driver behind commercial fake engagement online. It's the activity @sebastian_bay at @STRATCOMCOE investigated in 2019. But it shouldn't be confused with what Facebook calls CIB - governmental style troll farms. (3/7)

nytimes.com/2019/12/06/tec…
Read 7 tweets
Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
19 Apr 21
It might be surprising to others that I felt so strongly about protecting democracy worldwide, when I'm just a silly Chinese-American girl who doesn't even like leaving her house.

But I firmly believe that everyone deserves equal protection of law - regardless of nation. (1/4)
I realize that it's a fact of life that everyone cares more about their own nation; to the average Western audience, a dozen deaths in the US are treated far more seriously than hundreds in Myanmar. 300 million Americans are considered more important than 1 billion Indians. (2/4)
But it's also the nature of the world that value judgments change over time.

As a daughter of Chinese immigrants, my becoming a U.S. citizen was illegal until 150 years ago. Eight score years ago, slavery was commonplace in the United States; today we find it anathema. (3/4)
Read 4 tweets
Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
17 Apr 21
Facebook will say that I'm seeking attention. I never wanted attention - to face threats from powerful companies, to anger multiple powerful political figures throughout the world. Why would anyone want that?

I wanted to stay home and pet my cats. They are very good cats. Image
But we all have to do things in life that we never wanted. I'm sure Navalny didn't want to return home to the arms of a government who wished to murder him. Tsikhanouskaya was a housewife, why would she wish to be banished from Belarus?

What I've risked is nothing in comparison.
Changing the world is hard. In Myanmar, Khin Myo Chit was killed at the age of six years old. She was no threat at all to the military regime that murdered her.

The world won't improve unless we work together. I'm just a silly American trying to help.

bbc.com/news/world-asi…
Read 4 tweets
Sophie Zhang（张学菲） Profile picture
15 Apr 21
I fought tooth and nail at Facebook for justice, because I knew the company would never have carried out my work without me. I thought it was my responsibility to do my utmost to protect the sanctity of the world's largest democracy.

FB disagreed. (1/6)
theguardian.com/technology/202…
The @BJP4India politician's network was tiny and silly compared to what I saw in AZ and HN. I wouldn't consider it newsworthy, if it weren't for the fact that we were ready to take it down - approval had been given.

Then I found the BJP connection - and everything stopped. (2/6)
FB had more than a week to get their story straight. They couldn't even manage that.

Even in the best case for Facebook, if you believe them completely, they lied to the press through incompetence or deceit, and took half a year to act on the network. (3/6)
Read 6 tweets

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