It's a Saturday, which is as good a time as any to look at a small network of antivax accounts using GAN-generated face pics (similar to those produced by thispersondoesnotexist.com). #SaturdayShenaniGANs
This network consists of 12 accounts created in November/December 2021 with GAN-generated profile pics. 8 of the 12 images have a grid of dots superimposed on the GAN-generated face for unknown reasons. The accounts tweet via the Twitter Web App in both Dutch and English.
GAN-generated face pics (so far) have the property that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the same position on each image, regardless of the angle of the head. This becomes apparent when the images are blended together.
This diagram shows the interactions (replies/retweets/quote tweets/follows) between the 12 accounts in the network. Only one of the accounts (@leo_sikking) has interacted with all of the other accounts in the network.
Most of the accounts in the network have been silent for the last month or so, but two of them (@HermanusSchott1 and @leo_sikking) are still fairly active and have tweeted here and there in support of antivax truck convoys in both Canada and the Netherlands.
Here's an unusual account: @BohuslavAleksan. According to this account's profile, it belongs to a journalist with the @KyivIndependent, but the Kyiv Independent's website contains no mention of "Bohuslav Aleksander" nor any articles by anyone of that name.
Additionally, the vast majority of @BohuslavAleksan's followers are empty accounts created in March 2022. This self-proclaimed "journalist" account has almost no real followers at all.
The newly-created empty accounts following @BohuslavAleksan look very similar to a fake follower network that has repeatedly popped up following a variety of cryptocurrency/NFT accounts as well as the occasional US Congressional candidate:
It's a day that end in "y", and a bunch of accounts with GAN-generated face pics are having "conversations" with each other about a game called "TheUnfettered" that apparently involves both NFTs and the Metaverse. #FridayShenaniGANs
These accounts are part of a network of 23 accounts with GAN-generated profile pics that (at least for the last year) tweet exclusively via the Twitter Web App. Most were created August 2020 or later, but six were made in 2011 and have old tweets sent via a variety of apps.
Unmodified GAN-generated face pics (at least so far) have the telltale trait that the major facial features are in the same position on every image. This becomes evident when we blend the profile images of the 23 accounts in the network.
#CanadaHasFallen is trending, and one of the more popular tweets is from an account with a GAN-generated profile pic: @youspecialagent, permanent ID 1277275248400969731.
Despite having only ~4500 followers, @youspecialagent's tweets featuring various hashtags opposing "vaccine passports" have repeatedly gone viral.
Over 1000 of @youspecialagent's followers appear to have been gained by posting a single followback tweet containing an anti-"vaccine passport" hashtag. A bunch of accounts replied to the tweet with the hashtag in question, spreading the hashtag further.
It's February, and a group of accounts with GAN-generated profile pics are tweeting identical "Merry Christmas" tweets promoting some kind of NFT giveaway.
(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used by thispersondoesnotexist.com to produce fake faces)
These accounts are part of a spam network consisting of (at least) 6105 accounts created in February 2022, mostly in large batches. All have GAN-generated profile pics. The same names are reused across accounts - the 6105 accounts only have 25 unique first names between them.
The GAN-generated face pics produced by tools like thispersondoesnotexist.com have the telltale trait that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the same position on every image. This becomes obvious when the images are blended together.
The 2022 #WinterOlympics are underway, and spammy networks such as this group of accounts with anime avatars tweeting about the "pokesperson of Chinese Embassy in the US" are taking an interest in the occasion.
These tweets were posted by a network consisting of (at least) 152 similarly-named accounts created in batches between September 2021 and January 2022. All tweet (allegedly) via either the Twitter Web App or Twitter for Android, and all have few or no followers or followees.
Many of the tweets posted by this network are duplicated on multiple accounts. The main theme is denial of human rights abuses against Uyghurs, with "feel-good" content about Xinjiang thrown in. The network frequently uses Olympic hashtags (#WinterOlympics, #Beijing2022, etc).
For a change of pace, I'm doing a bit of a YouTube experiment. I'm going to choose six songs of varied genre on a new YouTube account, and then just listen to whatever it creates as the "My Mix" playlist. #FruitOfTheAlgorithm